Oh Chanada

[NatureJunkie]

I didn't expect much when I started watching this. I never heard of this guy before, but I don't pay much attention to this sport anymore. He doesn't even have the physique of today's super cut, gymnastic skaters--kinda spindly and limp looking on top. And the music was way too Liberace for me.

But two minutes in, I was in a stoned trance. This man isn't so much a skater as he is a ballerina with a jetpack, terrain tracking over the ice in magnetic levitation. So swift, so quiet, so powerful, like the whoosh an owl leaves in your ears long after you had a chance to feel it coming. Mostly I think it was easy to be entranced because he seems entranced himself. Unlike other skaters who seem so absorbed in calculating their physical moves that they forget to synchronize with the music, this man seems utterly lost in the dance.

Or maybe I've just overdosed on political conventions lately and this was an antidote.

Patrick Chan.

[Chig]

That was amazing.   And I know you did not appreciate the Chopin.   However, here.... this is what Chopin looks like.  First person look at Chopin on keyboard   It too is mesmirizing.

[NatureJunkie]

@ Chig: Maybe one reason Mr. Chan can get so lost in the dance is that he "gets" Chopin in a way that I don't. I don't know why Chopin totally fails to move me. It's even worse than that, actually, it kind of brings on the beginnings of a headache. But after watching that keyboard video I at least now have an appreciation of the technical virtuosity it takes to play Chopin. That was stunning. And you are right--totally mesmerizing.