A Holiday Email to a Dear Friend

dear xiaobi,

i am studying for my enviro midterm but i am also truly distracted. i keep thinking about the holidays and how to use them. when i was sick this weekend and my mom drove me back, we passed rockefeller center and saks and the xmas decorations werent up yet but it was still so exciting. right now i think that when you get back, we really must go around the city, (and hopefully it will be snowing) and we will be bundled up in many lovely appropriate christmasy clothes. patterned scarves and cushy sweaters and all that. we will go skating at rockefeller and go to serendipity and go to central park to make a snowman and go window shopping and gaze at all the sparkly bedazzling new decorations. actually we should build a snowman and then go to serendipity to warm up. then we should go xmas shopping or just window shopping and it will be so tremendously lovely because the holidays are always so cheery even if xmas itself is just a byproduct of rampant materialism and crass commercial advertising devoid of any spiritual significance save a sprinkle of filial devotion. but that doesn't matter because it will be so nice. and we will be wearing cozy warm mittens and snug hats and drinking foamy hot chocolate with marshmallows. and there will be christmas songs in the air and tinsel on the stores. won't that be nice?

best, bteeesd

I don't love her nearly as much as some people I know, but how you can fail to yield to her charms in this photo is beyond me. I absolutely love what she's wearing and of course, what she's sitting on.

Handomeness and Likeability Have A Positive Correlation, I'm Afraid to Admit

Dear Jesse Eisenberg or Jesse Eisenberg's agent,

When you/he put some care into your appearance and sit up straight without that usual jutting-neck out, you actually appear....hmm......dare I say it....attractive. Pretty attractive. Kinda hot in that certain way, in fact.

This can only lead to a positive outcome especially when combined with that dry wit of yours, so please continue to invest effort in this auspicious potential.

Love,

a budding fan

"Like" Button? Give Me "Love"

I must say, after reading Armand White's critique of The Social Network, I have to agree with most of the things he says, but that doesn't stop me from loving the movie any less. The movie nailed exactly what it set out to do, and I think White should look into the reasons behind our admiration for Zuckerberg instead of criticizing the movie itself.

I know everyone's going on about Andrew Garfield this and Garfield that, and I admit he was fantastic, but Jesse Eisenberg definitely cinched it for me. He has the most difficult job out of anyone - being an unrepentant asshole, screwing over his best friend, and still we admire him.

You still root for him despite him being an "asshole" (as he's called several times, notably, throughout the movie) because he's brilliant, straightforward, blunt, and completely unapologetic about it. There are no social redeeming qualities to him, but that's part of his appeal. Much like Sue Sylvester and Ari Gold, we can't help but admire that aspect. He doesn't say things specifically to hurt people, he just has no mind filter. And I admit, we wouldn't like him as much if he didn't say such clever things all the time.

And Eisenberg's great delivery definitely helps.

But overall, I'm not sure it's a terrible thing if American begins to worship at the alter of the geek instead of the altar of the jocks (as represented by the Winklevi). But I hope people realize that a great deal of the movie is fabricated and one key character doesn't exist in real life at all. Before they assume that it's a 100% accurate biopic, I hope they Google that shit.

Some great, insightful articles on the real, and may I say, definitively less ruthless and wiseass Mark Zuckerberg:

Sillicon Valley reacts after seeing The Social Network

A great profile on him in "The New Yorker"

Pics of his real girlfriend to whom presumably he is not an asshole towards otherwise they wouldn't have moved in together, Priscilla Chan

I'm praying that it won't fade on me. Please? So far, I haven't been feeling the unease after seeing The Dark Knight, when my original declaration that it was a masterpiece slowly ebbed as I began to grow less enamored with it every second I spent thinking about it. The adrenaline of the ride was not enough to sustain the aftermath. But The Social Network is so well constructed. Here's to hoping that it will age like fine wine, or better yet, like Fincher's other tour de force, Fight Club.

*Postnote: Part of the reason why I'm so impressed with Eisenberg is because I had pretty low expectations all along. I read an interview several months back when he said he enjoyed playing the asshole for once, meeting my condescending disapproval ("that's simplistic and no one will care about your character if you do that!") and the endless promo photos of his unsmiling Zuckerberg led me to worry that his acting would merely consist between one-note expressions that alternated between poker-face and constipated, as is generally the result when many actors attempt to be "stoic". I didn't have any faith. But again, he nailed everything. I'll need to see it again but I'm a bit in love with the performance for now. Full apologies for Mr. Eisenberg for having considered him a less appealing version of Michael Cera, though I'll wait for him to demonstrate his full range before I commit to him.

Ensemble: The Young Emperors

A picture from "The Emperor's Club" (2002), a movie I loved when it came out. Of course, none of the young actors in it were recognizable or known at the time. My recent interest in Eisenberg led me to re-discover this the other day, and I couldn't believe that I knew three of the young leads so well. Apologies to the dude on the far left, (who was great in the movie and though probably as talented as his co-stars, will never get a fair chance due to his ethnicity), but the photo is all about the young Emile Hirsch, Jesse Eisenberg, and Paul Dano.

Then and Now: At the time of shooting, they would have been around 16, 18, and 17, respectively. This sort of picture just gives me tingles, thinking, "oh, little did they know!" There's always at least one star who emerges from youth ensembles, but it's so much fun knowing that within a few years, all three of their careers would have a star-making turn; that would be "Into the Wild" for Hirsch, "The Social Network", of course, for Eisenberg. Paul Dano is the one most likely never to reach leading-man status, but he's compensated for this by appearing in great vehicles, such as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "There Will Be Blood". None of them have been nominated for any Oscars yet, with Hirsch coming the closest after earning great notices for his Christopher McCandless and his adorable character in "Milk", and buzz starting for Eisenberg for "The Social Network".

What's Up Next: Hirsch will star in "The Darkest Hour", a Russian sci-fi thriller with Olivia Thirlby and Max Minghella (from "The Social Network"!), Paul Dano in the indie movie "Ellen" and then John Favreau's "Cowboys and Indians" along with Daniel Craig, and Jesse Eisenberg, arguably the last of the three to hit his stride, is currently filming the comedy "30 Minutes Or Less" with Danny McBride, though of course with this new movie, he's going to be receiving a lot of interesting film offers.

The Last Breath Before the Festivities Come

Bye-bye, September. Goodbye, last month of bipolar weather (tornados, heat waves, sudden drops and spikes, assholery weather in general), and looking forward to the cooling breath of October. It's raining ferociously today and I'm LOVING it.

Best of all, the fall season means that it's officially time to start speculating Oscar. Of course, it's an yearly ongoing discourse. Bloggers and movie fans briefly sojourn in a state of sickened exhaustion after the Oscars take place, barely taking time to return to a state of normalcy before Sundance comes along and revs them back up. But most early speculation consist of potshots. I came across an Oscar prediction article in April (for God's sake) that predicted The American to win Best Picture for 2011. (Er, just to put it out now and forever, any movie that has the competent but uninteresting Mr. Clooney as its leading man will never win Best Picture. He's charismatic but also an emotional vacuum, and there's always an overly-complacent vagueness to his charm that counteracts any force of conflict of depth. Hence, it's difficult to be invested in him. We like 'em outlandish)

*Dammit! I really did lose half this blog entry. Quick re-write:

September deaths: RIP Sally Menke, editor and MVP to Quentin Tarantino. She was a hero of mine, especially during a short period briefly back when I wanted to become a film editor. Her untimely and tragic death already sparked whispers about whether Tarantino can retain the same level of quality without her. I think he can, but all the same, it's surely a creative and personal blow for him. Menke left big shoes to fill.

Wonderfully funny and (now sad) tradition QT did for Sally Menke:

RIP to Tony Curtis and Gloria Stuart as well.

"The Social Network" marks the beginning of real-time Oscar season, especially with the reviews nearing a hysterical peak. It only makes me more anxious for this to be a Great Movie. Please let it reinvigorate the movie industry into writing great dialogue again, and please let it mark the auspicious beginnings of a better movie decade than the last.

September trailers amp up the growing Oscar excitement: The King's Speech, and True Grit.

Love the song. Love the unknown girl they picked, especially her deliberate line delivery. Cinematographer Roger Deakins is so finally winning his due with this.

Audience members who have already seen it at Toronto are falling over themselves left and right to assure people that it's much better than its pandering trailer. Will rightfully cement Colin Firth's status as one of the best actors of his generation, and perhaps begin a career revival for the unfailingly great Helena Bonham-Carter (no, Harry Potter and her husband's bad movies don't really count, though she was awesome in them).

The New SNL

This is really just me trying to avoid doing my environmental science homework, but here's an observation anyways: 30 Rock = SNL proxy.

Methinks that when Tina Fey left SNL, she took all the decent writers other than Seth Meyers with her. And look at the guest roster, both past and upcoming. SNL hasn't seen such a hodgepodge of A-listery since.....well, a very long time. When Christopher Walken stops coming, you know you've got some trouble on your hands. For the love of god, Lorne Michaels, stop firing your actors and start firing your writers instead. Most of their hosts this season are TV stars - Jon Hamm, Bryan Cranston and the like. Nothing against those lovely people, but 30 Rock bagged Julianne Moore, Matt Damon, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael "Wesley Snipes" Sheen for the finale alone, and Queen Latifah and Paul Giamatti are next this season. That just shows: most actors will do anything that will allow them to have fun and take advantage of great writing and great characters (except for certain *cough* actors who only think Acting is too dignified for comedy - you know who I'm referring to), and if SNL won't allow them to, then by god they'll find something that will.

Now, if only I can get my hands on some tickets for that live 30 Rock episode.

Spotted: A Whole Host of Celebrities

I always thought it was cliched that New Yorkers always saw celebrities on the street. "I go to New York all the time and I never see anyone" I'd grumble. Suffice to say, that's all changed in the past month that I've spent in the city for my first year of college.

The past spring, my friends and I were blessed at the sight of James Gandolfini bumping against the window of the cafe where we were eating. It's a bit of shock to turn your head in annoyance, only to find Tony Soprano's face exactly six inches away from yours, with only a smudgy window in between. I freaked. I freaked in a very un-casual way, not at all like our nonchalant waitress who breezily pointed out the back of Meg Ryan walking across street six minutes later.

Gossip Girl films frequently near the campus, so a large and very un-hip (screaming, excitable) fans gathered to watch Blake Lively in the first week of college. It's pretty difficult not to miss her. I did watch, but managed to roll my eyes when Blake briefly turned around and a couple girls started to scream and wave at her. In my opinion, she kind of sucks and I would rather drool over the magnanimous presence of her superior co-stars, Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick over that literally part-plastic Barbie doll any day.

A week later, we were blessed by the appearance of an elusive Joseph-Gordon Levitt, who was filming for his new movie, "Premium Rush". He managed to throw people off by being not six feet tall and impeccably dressed, and having a doppelganger stunt double who diverted a great deal of attention. I think I may have made eye contact with him, though. Sigh.

Less than a week later, I went to see American Idiot in Times Square, and I got incredibly lucky - there was a rare call-back that night, and Bille Joe Armstrong came onstage. I gazed lustfully at John Gallagher Jr. instead, and my friend found it highly amusing when, afterwards, I waited anxiously for twenty minutes for JGJ to come out of the stagedoor, got Bille Joe Armstrong instead,, and promptly roared "I don't want Billie Joe Armstrong! I want JOHN GALLAGHER JR!". I've read that he rarely appears at the stagedoor for AI - that he naps instead from exhaustion after such a strenuous show. As a person who gets tired after climbing three flights of stairs, I don't blame him at all.

After that, the rest of the Gossip Girl cast supposedly came back to film, but I didn't see them. I did see Stark Sands, the third lead in American Idiot, in front of me this morning when I was in Times Square getting a Jamba Juice. When I realized it, I trembled and gaped like an idiot since it was so unexpected (Jamba Juice, really!) and spent the next ten minutes debating whether I should approach him or not to tell him how much I had liked American Idiot (he has a fantastic voice, too). For hard-working, relatively obscure actors like him, it's a real treat when people recognize them on the street and cite their work. Even James Gandolfini was visibly pleased when I told him I had liked "Where The Wild Things Are", probably because he's so accustomed to Sopranos-related heckling.

Certainly no one else was throwing themselves over Stark Sands in Jamba Juice. He's great-looking, with a completely symmetrical face and a perfect nose, but still not exactly dazzling A-list, handsome-standout, unlike Blake Lively. He left, and I chided myself for my cowardice as I left.

All in all, a pretty nice month for spotting. I've learned to be cooler (I've taken very few pictures with my phone and haven't asked for any autographs since the Gandolfini tryst) but for this actorphile, I don't think celebrity-spotting will ever get old.

A Little Bronte Delight

That's one of the first screencaps from the upcoming Jane Eyre, to be released in 2011. It stars Mia Wasikowska as Jane, and the ubiquitous Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester. Though I'm not as enamored with Michael Fassbender as some people (*cough, everyone on the freaking internet) he supposedly oozes sexual charisma, so that's.......goood. I just hope this adaptation will be as passionate as the book. The most misguided complaint about Jane Eyre is that it's a boringly reserved cautionary tale.

Jane's entire personality is led by passion (and modulated by morality). Jane Eyre is very much the proper sister of Wuthering Heights, with the same underlying veins of passion and contrariness. Austen may have had a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards social norms, but the Bronte sisters outright rejected them. To be fair, the world Charlotte and Emily inhabited was of a more primal, desperate nature than Jane Austen's. They were probably more engaged with battling (and ultimately losing to) consumption, illness, scarcity, and the other many diverse ways of dying before the age of thirty, and overall weren't too bothered about observing societal norms. Jane Eyre has much less action than Wuthering Heights, but I think it's just as fierce and impassioned.

Jane Eyre has become my go-to book this summer, for some reason. Every time I'm bored, I just rife through the book again, rereading passages and discovering new details. And what I found is that the book is surprisingly hilarious, especially Jane's exchanges with Mr. Rochester. Rochester is the scandal-slut of the pair, so readers always end up reading his monologues more intently, but Jane's answers are equally fascinating, IMO, for their eloquence and unconventionality. Like Cathy Earnshaw, she's simply immune to standard notions of romance. The morning after she and Rochester get engaged, she tells him semi-sarcastically:

"I suppose your love will effervesce in six months or less. I have observed in books written by men, that period assigned as the furthest to which a husband's ardour extends."

Basically, I see Jane as how Elizabeth Bennet would have turned out if she'd also been orphaned, abused, and impoverished from an early age. Her attitudes and movements are restricted by her circumstances, but the entire point of her oft-emphasized plainness is that within that plainness is a rare, smart, and feisty gal. She's not, as people often think of her (or actresses always play her) doddering or severe. In one of Mr. Rochester's swooningly observant Jane-analyses, he tells her that "you looked thoughtful; not despondent. You were not sickly; but not buoyant, for you had little hope and actual pleasure.....I saw that you had a social heart; it was the tedium of your life that made you mournful".

Other released screencap - dying to see Fassbender in full Rochester soon!

More instances: the month lapsing between their engagement and marriage is rife with erotic tension. Jane teases and vexes Mr. Rochester to keep him at arm's length, provoking a kind of sexual frustration on Mr. Rochester's part and forcing him to physically vent through "pressure, pinches, and tweaks of the ear." Rawrrrr, right? In what is my opinion one of the more sexy-tense scenes in the novel, Mr Rochester approaches Jane after he gets aroused (I interpreted as) singing a lover's song, and he comes at her "face kindled and eye flashing" and is about to - what? Pounce? Embrace? Indecent physical foreplay? - something of a physical nature, before a fearful Jane saves the day by breathlessly diverting him with one of her witty questions.

Too often, Jane is portrayed in movies as a Mary-Sue type, as a girl who is outshined by Rochester until he loses his arm, eye, and becomes fitting to be her partner-in-loserish-ness. The spark, the genuine chemistry and fire of their courtship are always left out. That's the point of their romance. He meets a girl whose passion, intellect, and stimulation transcends their social boundaries and surpasses the courtly reserve of everyone else (and whose gamine frame he happens to find weirdly attractive).

People don't realize that Jane's more than just Rochester's foil; she's his equal, just as provocative and saucy. If the film adaptation realized the spirit of the novel, it would be an absolute firecracker. I can only hope that they didn't get Fassbender in order to compensate for the screen heroine's dullness, rather than to upgrade both characters.

I want an adaptation that portrays Jane the way Mr. Rochester sees her, not the way society sees her, not a plain square who manages to hook a guy with a schoolmarm fetish - but rather, a manic pixie dream girl in Gothic orphan mode, whose independence and total self-assuredness has a weird implicit charisma of its own. One that shows exactly why Jane is such an exciting prospect to Rochester, not just because romancing her is a cool "fuck you" to society, but because Rochester is sincerely enchanted by her - by the "strange, unearthly" air about her, the "soft excitement in her aspect", her "glowing eye", "curious hesitation", and mannerisms that are "piquant" "aerial" "frail" , the "soul of fire". The curious smile that is endlessly fascinating to Rochester for its "sagacious grace, inexplicable uncanny turn of countenance", on the whole, a "wild, shy, provoking". The complex and tumultuous spirt roiling beneath her plain face needs to be illuminated and worshipped by the camera the way Abbie Cornish was in Bright Star, so that the audience can understand Rochester's enchantment, and agree with his assessment of Jane as an "elf", a "witch", a "minx".

Let's hope this is the one.

A Very Tarantino Dream

I had a dream last night about Quentin Tarantino (!). We were sitting together and collaborating for his next movie. Ideas were spinning out of his head faster than I could process them, though at point I told him it reeked in comparison to Pulp Fiction. "And you want to make the protagonist have a dead wife?" I said scornfully. "That's so Christopher Nolan."

"Nolan is a silly director," he muttered, still writing feverishly. "In my hands it'll will be instant auteur material." I nodded, very impressed. Then I opened my mouth again to ask him what he thought of Bright Star - I always strongly associate Tarantino with Bright Star, since one of the biggest surprises of 2009 was hearing that Tarantino was a strong fan, and even wrote Jane Campion a letter detailing his appreciation for the movie. Sadly, my dream zoomed into another dimension before I could ask the question.

+ =

Night Symphony

Used, from left to right: The Great Gatsby, Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold", Georgia O'Keefe, Protestant Cementery in Rome, Woody Allen's Manhattan, Hopper's "Nighthawks", Van Gogh, unknown, Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Van Gogh, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mulholland Drive, unknown, and O'Keefe for the rest.

"Christ on a Cracker, Where Do You Get Off?"

It's ridiculous how much Mad Men is making me laugh these days. True Blood is totally forgettable and unworthy of full attention for an hour each week, with the exception of its usual excellent guest actors (Alcide, Debbie during the all-out bitch smackdown, Russell) and because of Eric, obviously. On the other hand, I am determined to fully integrate "Christ on a cracker" into my cache of phrases.

Barring the Date

It's official. The weekend of Dec. 10-12 is fully booked for me. Don't text, call, email, or Facebook me, unless it's to discuss the occupations of said weekend.

Coming out all on the same date (Dec. 10); three favorite hotties - namely Johnny Depp in The Tourist, Skandar Keynes (aka Edmund) in the third installment of the Narnia series, and the David O. Russell smackdown, featuring my ex-beloved Christian Bale.

I seriously hope Depp has his mojo back on for the Tourist. Any variation of his Agent Sands character from Once Upon a Time in Mexico will do. The Youtube bastards took the "Shoot the Cook" sequence from the movie down, so I can't post any clip as proof of his undiluted brilliance in that movie. As for Angelina Jolie, who is unfortunately costarring in the drama, I could seriously care less. She's in the same league of acting as Leonardo Dicaprio - whatever spark or force of persona that propelled them to fame have long been sucked dry by some rancid combination of complacency and slowly-revealed mediocrity. Nowadays, when I watch either of them act, I don't see a character, only a succession of gestures; some dramatic eyebrow chewing, loud meltdowns, furrowed intensity. He really enjoys grimacing and she really enjoys smirking over her shoulder. A bit more hollering inserted if they're really gunning for that Oscar nom.

As for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I profess to having a thing for Skandar Keynes, who plays Edmund. He was so excellent and stealthy in the second movie. Fun trivia: Skandar's a descendant of Charles Darwin and four million other famous people.

I have mixed feelings about The Fighter - word out is that everyone involved in the movie is on their A-game, but Bale has again lost a drastic amount of weight for the role - I saw a few pictures and he looked ghastly, frankly. I can't stand it. It impressed me a lot when I was a fledging fan - "he's so dedicated!" but weight fluctuation is just an acting gimmick. I think Daniel Day Lewis had an excellent quote, where he - the ultimate shapeshifter - said that hardcore preparation for a role, such as losing weight or gaining a beard, etc. etc., was only dressing on the salad - the character still stems from within. Ultimately, exterior changes are overrated. Plus, it just doesn't make sense to be losing weight if you're going to be playing a boxer, even if the real-life boxer was a lightweight. Plus, I'm sure that these weight regimes affects his brain cells, and we all know that the best actors are also the smartest.

I do hope there will be trailers out for The Wahlberg and The Depp soon, though.

The Rebirth of the Rom-Com?

One of the main laments I've been hearing about Tinseltown is that bad flicks like Twilight and Mamma Mia! have been proving that women have an equal capacity to men when it comes to breaking the box office, but this wonderful widely acknowledged discovery came about the same time that movie journalists were announcing the death of the romantic comedy.

In fact, it was made official, several times over. Everyone, from the formidable James Wolcott and feisty Maureen Dowd (of Vanity Fair and the New York Times, respectively, for god's sake!) blamed Sex and the City 2 as the "final nail in the coffin of women's cult films". That must hurt.

James Wolcott feebly mentioned the possibility of Eat Pray Love reviving the genre. In the opinion of yours truly who saw it over the weekend, that movie is no genre lifesaver, but the movies in the previews shown before Eat Pray Love might be....

"How Do You Know"

Paul Rudd is still Perfect. I've never seen a James L Brooks movie, but I did some quickie research and Brooks feels a little like a quasi-kind-of-Terrence Malick of romantic dramadies so I have high expectations for this one.

"You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"

I'm not sure Woody Allen counts. Especially hearing the tepid word-of-mouth coming out of Cannes. But he is Woody Allen and all that so here's an honorary trailer:

Funny.

"Morning Glory"

My heart sank the moment I saw Rachel McAdams looking like Jennifer Garner's doppelganger in the cliched power-chick businesswear. It rose again as the trailer continued - hilarious Harrison Ford! A rare appearance by Jeff Goldblum! The romance reduced to an actual subplot! Might this be called progress? Even if Rachel McAdams does look a little demented at times in the trailer. I mean, just look at that shot....

"Love and Other Drugs"

I mean, it is Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, both of whom have a semblance of integrity and ambition. Yes, AH did appear in that awful Valentine Day movie that tried to pass itself off as the spunky American cousin of Love Actually, but at least Anne had only small role...I'm not sure because I refused to see the movie. Valentine's Day was one of three movies I heard my classmates actually discuss throughout the entire goddamn year, the two other films being Avatar and you-know-what.

Are screenwriters and studios alike responding to the vacuum of decent romantic comedies? My fingers are crossed. Not really. I've never crossed my fingers in real life. But you know what I mean.

**Update: Forgot to include this one - the much-buzzed about Sundance documentary, though most doubt that it's a legitimate documentary. With the inclusion of Facebook as a main plot device and hinted themes like online psychology, it's shaping up to be a kind of zeitgeist for our age. I'm terribly interested.

"Catfish"

Virtually Magnificent

It's been like, three months since I've seen it. Which means another revisit to....

Scott and Tessa's 2009-2010 free dance, performed to Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (Adagietto).

To further assure us of their shittiness, NBC not only censored all other website hosting the Olympic videos, but took aforementioned videos off, replacing them with silly "ARE YOU READY" promos of London 2012. As if anyone actually cares about London 2012 yet!

So I had to refer to the non-Olympic performances, all of which are spectacular even if they don't quite measure up to the simply inimitable magic of the Vancouver version. One of my favorites is the Mahler at Skate Canada, because the camera is close-up, giving the audience a larger scope of their faces and Scott's wonderful physical charisma. The Skate Canada version is also not as refined, which in my opinion allows the spirit of the dance to come through - Scott and Tessa are literally quite breathless in their duo of timeless love.

"Exhaling a long, sensual breath across the ice" - the New York Times loves them too.

As I've noticed in their other dances, the choreography never quite holds up in the middle, probably because Scott and Tessa have to insert all those foot-sequences, or whatever those dancing requirements are called, but the ending lifts - the ending itself - are flawless.

Scott is pretty emotionally overwhelmed at the end, as he always is for the Mahler - it's a bit embarrassing, almost like catching him with his pants down, because in interviews he comes across as your regular charming jock - mischievous and wry and boyish, incorrigibly mugging the camera as Tessa looks on like a fondly older sister. But as fellow skater Ben Agosto said of Scott, he's a fantastic actor. On the ice he slips into a different mode of character, imbuing the persona of whoever he's supposed to be in the dance. And Tessa's just...Tessa, her mood as unfaltering as her routine. The only time I've seen her let go was during the Umbrellas of Cherbourg dance at Worlds, which led a few people to conclude that she and Scott were dating at the time, otherwise she would have never looked "so in love". To which I can only think, unlikely, but I hope so.

Mahler at the "Grand Prix" - smoother, better quality (both dance-wise and video-wise) but more dazzling?

P.S. Unrelated and tangential, though somewhat figure-skating related. I just got into a fight on youtube with someone who said that everyone who thinks the lovely and talented Johnny Weir is gay is just stereotyping and "labeling". ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME? This is in the same exact category as the time when I came across someone on IMDB who spent about twenty pages of a thread trying to convince people that Orlando Bloom was the best actor of his generation.