Just Enough of a Bastard to Be Worth Knowing

And they were "rivals."

just use a dollmaker.

This specific character maker is the reason why three different angels in “Aziraphale’s Children” have vitiligo (there’s an in-story reason for this that I haven’t revealed yet), it’s responsible for the personalities of at least four Archangels, it’s the reason I decided Seraphim are created in identical sets, and changed my entire perception of one character’s gender. And that’s just one (super long and unfinished) fic!

I'll be hyperlinking the videos from Dreams on Ice below. Kaori Sakamoto also skated at this show

Kaori Sakamoto

Yuna Aoki, Mone Chiba, Ami Nakai (in order)

Kazuki Tomono and Sota Yamamoto

Ikura Kushida and Koshiro Shimada (ice dance)

Taigo Nishino, Rio Nakata

Kao Miura

Shun Sato

Mei Okada, Mayuko Oka, Mao Shimada

Dreams on Ice (DOI) is a show that works with the JSF to showcase the top Japanese skaters. Most choose to debut their new programs for the first time at DOI. You can expect a lot of changes between the DOI version of a program and its final form but it's a nice sneak peak at what the skater is planning.

Ami Nakai - I think this was a great step for her artistically! It matures her up a little more while still keeping Ami’s charming youthfulness. That being said, program still needs some polish but I think it’s a good direction for her

Shun Sato - I really liked shun’s new program! I like that it’s upbeat and it’s the perfect vehicle for him to be more expressive with his body. I really struggled to connect to Shun’s programs before because they felt kinda emotionless but this is different! And good!!! Look at what you can do away from Cizeron Shun!!!

Mone Chiba - Love the concept for her and I think Mone can pull it off, but Mone;s main weakness in my opinion has been her nervousness.  Mone is an athlete whose emotions you can so clearly read on her face and during the Skyfall section you can tell she was nervous. I didn’t feel like I watching “Mone Chiba: Bond Girl”, I felt like I was watching an athlete trying desperately not to mess up her jumps. I hope she finds more confidence in herself because I know in my SOUL she can be a Bond girl. As a whole however, I don't like the musical choices here either. Skyfall is such as emotional & heavy song, it's a song you end on, not a song you start with. I also found the transition from Skyfall to the main theme a bit rough. Hopefully Mone, Buttle, and Hamada sand down the rough edges.

Kao Miura - Kao ate down hard. i think it’s a great program that showcases all of his strengths and charisma. Not a single dull moment. This is fantastic, I take back my clowning of his costume and I’m so jealous of the people who will see this live!! Imagine how much better this program is when you can feel the energy and see Kao skating at full speed!! Dare I say it, Kao’s might be my favorite out of all the DOI programs???

Yuna Aoki - I’m impressed by how polished Yuna is despite it being so early! It was interesting to see her 3 jumps combinations (I think it was a 2A+Eu+3F+2A). Honestly I was a bit of a hater of the 3 jump combo idea but Yuna made it so beautiful and musical. Yuna’s easily the most graceful skater alive, and I’m so glad she decided to not retire and instead continue on. Miss champagne bubbles indeed.

Kazuki Tomono - Seeing Kazuki skate to Freddie Mercury’s voice made me weirdly emotional??? I can’t describe it but Freddie’s voice fits Kazuki and his energy so perfectly. Anyways, the program is very joyful and it fits Kazuki like a glove. Kazuki’s an amazing performer and hopefully the free skate doesn’t keeping getting away from him

Sota Yamamoto - any man wearing dramatic makeup gets at least a 9/10 in my book. I SEE HIS VISION AND I LOVE IT. I’ve always seen Sota as more of a classical and clean cut skater, so seeing him take on an edgier program is very exciting. I love the music, the costume, the makeup, even the hair (it feels very lightly visual kei inspired?? Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not in that subculture). Sota is so captivating to watch 

Mao Shimada - I love the music?? It’s a bit unconventional, dreamy, dramatic, and intense but also not too big for her. That 3A was scary but she had guts to go for it and I appreciate that. Lovely spins and performance from her, and while it isn’t juniorish at all, I also feel like it doesn’t really push Mao into a new direction in anyway. I feel like this is the type of program to grow on me over time.

Rio Nakata - Rio, I’m so sorry but you’re not getting the aux. The song is so generic and sounds like an imagine dragons reject but he’s skating is as good as ever. I think overall the program is decent but a disappointment to me considering how good his last short program was.

Utana Yoshida/Masaya Morita - I ADORE that Utana bejeweled the shit out of her face, it looks amazinggg. Unfortunately, I don’t love it as a program, the two sections are great individually but don’t go together imo. I saw speculation that they wanted to portray death and dance in various ways but I’m not feeling this at all. I do really like the Danse Macabre part and hope they just make it the full program.

Ikura Kushida/Koshiro Shimada - Kushida/Shimada are STUNNING. The costumes, music and their skating are all so elegant and classy. Shout out to Koshiro for being an active agent and performer and not a lamp that drags the woman around. I think it’s a great program, however… While I’m not the most educated on ice dance and especially patterns (I only started watching super consistently during the Milano-cortina quad), I rewatched some Golden Waltz programs to prepare for the new season and Kushida/Shimada’s pattern looks kinda off????? Hopefully they can clean it up before going to competition

Mayuko Oka - I LOVE THIS!!!! I started getting interested in her skating when I saw her amazing peacock program and this might convert me into an outright fan. I’m not a ballet girl at all, so forgive me if I’m wrong, but I love, love, love the balletic flourishes and I think she put in some of the ballet’s original choreography which is soo cool. I also ADORE her musicality. Mayuko Oka JWC 2027!!

Taiga Nishino & Mei Okada - Taiga and Mei are really lovely skaters and I like their costume, music, and programs overall. While I do like both of them, they’ve never had that “wow” moment for me to fall in love with either of their skating but that’s pretty natural considering they’re juniors. 

Daiya Ebihara - holy shit that first jump to the music was so good. The pseudo cartwheel at the end was very fun too. Overall, I really enjoyed program, he feels very well-packaged and his jumps look better than at JWC

Jingu Ice Messengers - WOW. I’ve never really watched Synchro before but these ladies really impressed me! They’re so in sync and create beautiful shapes on the ice while doing singles and pairs elements (I saw some spins, pseudo-death spirals (idk if they count as true death spirals or not), and group lifts). It was super cool and I might starting watching Synchro this year.

Kaori Sakamoto - Nice to her skating again! The program brings back bittersweet memories of the Olympics gala to me :,) Her 2A is still fucking giant and she still skates like she’s going 200mph. fun fact I watched the programs in the order of this list! So seeing Kaori’s brilliance after a group of a juniors still figuring themselves out really made me understand how captivating she is to watch.

Closing number - I always like seeing things we wouldn’t seeing otherwise during the closing number/galas. Skating is a very individual sport so it’s nice to see every interact. Kushida/Shimada & Yoshida/Morita twizzling together, Rio and Mao’s sbs lutz, and Kao and Shun being silly at the end were my highlights!

lmk your dreams on ice thoughts!! i would love to discuss.

Dust Dancing on a Sunbeam

William Shatner: Leonard was so brilliant and thoughtful and striking and intense, you don't even know half of it, he was incredible but also funnier and sillier than you'd guess and so striking and such a genius and kind and not exactly Spock but kind of reserved in the same way, he did define the character, and very caring. They say we used to compete but I don't really remember it because he was just so... I remember laughing together and... anyway

Haha, yes!

FWIW, there are a lot of documented examples of both of these uhhhh characterizations, but since this is suddenly getting more notes, the specific ones I was most thinking of:

From Nimoy—

Bill is the only actor with whom I have that spark, that chemistry—to anything like the extent I have it with him. When we step into a scene, I always know—something’s going to happen. Just amazing. Just amazing the tremendous spark of some kind that he would set off. You remember, Bill, what used to happen in the makeup department in the morning. You’d come in. We’d have these screaming, yelling, laughing discussions. Walk out of there exhausted, exhausted— [...] You know—how can I do a day’s work? I’m aching from laughing. Just amazing. Just amazing the kind of spark that he would set off. And I think, as I really think about it, the idea of working together again on STAR TREK—it’s that thing that I would look forward to most. That happening again. I have no doubt in my mind that it would. Amazing spark that I get from him.

From Shatner:

I miss him. Even when we weren't in close touch, he was always in my life. And when I think about Leonard and all the adventures we had together, I remember his own lust for life; I remember his desire to explore and experience life in all its infinite wonders. I think of his spiritual side, in which he never stopped searching for answers he knew he would never find. I think of his generosity and his commitment to fight for equal justice for everyone. I think of his never-ending passion for the arts and his quest to nurture creativity in young people. And I think of him standing in front of me, his palm held high, his fingers separated in the Vulcan salute, smiling knowingly. Fifty years is a lifetime that passes in an instant. I can close my eyes and see him, young and handsome, tall and taciturn. He's there, in my mind; his light step, his sardonic humor, his passion for his work. I hear his voice in all its richness, infused with an endless curiosity, and the sounds of his unhappiness as well as his laughter.

ETA2: we do use inches/miles in poetic ways ("he was lost in thought/miles away" or "his lips were a bare inch away").

1. Archer (does not feel bad)

2. Burnham (feels a Little Bad)

3. Janeway (we personally witnessed the devastation in them big ol I Had to Kill Somebody eyes, but she recovers quickly due to personal love of Tuvok and Neelix)

4. Sisko (spends awhile confirming every single possible alternative, does Not Feel Bad except when Tuvix directly calls him murderer)

5. Kirk (tries to Kobayashi Maru it. Dealer’s choice on if this results in a Tuvix AND Neelix and Tuvok live, or if it becomes one of those things that he carries foreverrr)

6. Picard (this could be a two parter episode with how much he would need to soliloquize on identity and the rights of the individual and the authority limits of a captain. But yeah, he’s killing Tuvix).

Tempted to actually put this on spotify so I can secretly stream it at work...

odo thinking he's finally gonna catch quark this time

the city of los angeles

the city of new york

sex

how drinking alcohol works

how getting high works

how a child of any age speaks

how nuclear physics work

how [my job] works

how debilitating being shot in the shoulder is

how hypothermia works

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

SHRIMP COCKTAIL:

banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol

generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is

#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro

And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!

POMEGRANATES:

zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple

thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute

sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.

FRUIT TREES:

zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''

salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE

baander: #cranberry trees

DOUGH/BATTER:

maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre

livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles

lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY

Some other topics:

坂本 花織 Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)

@shoegazy-pie

”… and as he lay dying in my arms he managed a few final words, telling me that the 2379 motion for education reform needs to carry majority in the Assembly.”

”… and he told me with a final, shaky gasp that Gul M. in particular needs to be fired for incompetence effective immediately.”