I was going to apologise for another long compilation post today and for going into overdrive on Johnny Weir, the American figure skater. But actually, no apology, a queen in bloom is very hard to resist (and he's skating very well too).
Read the stories below carefully - the joy is in the details. The glove called Camille. The almost purchased mink lined umbrella. 'What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs'. "Tinkerbelle". Nick Nolte's mug shot. But what makes this whole diva performance more than just entertainment is these two quotes from articles on him: 1) "When he was asked whether he worried about setting a good example for children, he gave an answer that transcended spin doctoring: "I don't think there should be one role model for all kids. I want to be a role model for kids who feel different and stifled, kids that I was like, kids who feel like they can't say what they want.'' " 2) "Let me address this head-on: This isn't about whether he's gay because we don't know that, and it's none of our business anyway. "But he is so openly flamboyant, so effeminate in a flaunting sort of way, that he's a test of the homophobic, not-that-there's-anything- wrong-with-that crowd anyway." from outsports.com: Why Johnny Weir rocks: Cyd and I agree that American figure skater Johnny Weir is our favorite Olympic athlete. We love his outspokenness and the fact that he is comfortable with who he is. While there are no publicly out skaters in Torino, Weir isn't even trying to fool anyone ("His being obviously gay -- without actually coming out -- doesn't bother me," one Outsports poster wrote) and in his interview last night on NBC he took great delight in tweaking the establishment. As he walked out of the arena Tuesday night, he looked at the camera seductively, then shimmied his shoulders while throwing his head back. If Weir, 21, is not gay, then neither are we. Here is Weir unplugged on NBC: "I know that a lot of people, especially the more Republican-style people, are very afraid of what I mean to the sport and what I'm going to say, what kind of revolutionary, crazy things are going to come out of my mouth. Good for them, they should be scared. "I'm not a good, little figure skater that goes to bed at 8:30 every night and gets up at 6:30, eats my three meals and goes to bed again. [in the background, playing on his car radio, as he's driving in the piece, swear to God, is 'What a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs']. I'm a real person. I do real things. "I'm not going to be the shiny, sparkly, flower-holding figure skater that sits here and says I'm going to do my best today and if I don't, then I'll go home and train really hard next time. That's not me. I'm going to be really angry if I skate bad and I'll probably say crazy things. That's how I rock it. "I'm not for everybody. There are going to be people that like you and people that hate you. There's nothing I can do. I don't think I'm a diva or pompous enough to be in the position of acting like a diva, but I like things the way I like them to be. It's really my own game and my own agenda and to live my life as happy as I can be. "I'm not out there to be a puppet for anyone. For now, my critics can eat it. I want people to remember me as someone that pushed the envelope, pushed the boundaries of the [he makes an air quotes move with his hands] 'United States figure skating establishment.' I'm happy with who Johnny Weir is." All we can say is: You go, girl! (Jim Buzinski) ------------------------------------ Comrade in arms Skater Weir is American in fact, a Russian in heart Gwen Knapp Turin, Italy -- Johnny Weir's costume shimmers with sequins and envelops one arm in fishnet. His hands sweep and swirl through the air, and he finishes his short program with a red-gloved palm resting dramatically against his face. Weir skates for the United States, but he isn't hot dogs and apple pie. He is Bolshoi and caviar and, whenever he talks, a stiff shot of vodka. The 21-year-old has taught himself the Russian language, studied czarist history and publicly worn a red sweatsuit jacket from the old Soviet team uniform as a good-luck charm. Tatiana Totmianina, a pairs skater who won the Olympic gold medal Monday night, gave the jacket to Weir as a birthday gift. He had become an honorary Russian, which in figure skating translates to: He could be a contender. Over the last four Winter Olympics, the men's figure-skating gold has gone to a Russian. Evgeni Plushenko, the leader after Tuesday's short program, should extend the streak to five Thursday night. Meanwhile, Americans have won only a silver and a bronze in all those years. Too often, the U.S. men skate as if trapped behind an electrical fence, certain that if they wear an outrageous costume or show the wrong kind of emotion, they will be zapped like naughty puppies. Not Weir. He moves with extraordinary artistic flair, as if he grew up in a place that produced men such as Rudolf Nuryev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. "The fact that skating is a sport and an art form isn't really appreciated (in the United States)," Weir told the Denver Post. "In Russia, they appreciate it because they have a history of ballet and music and culture and beauty. Here, people are more interested in seeing a bunch of spandex-covered men in helmets running around hugging each other for three hours.'' He probably shouldn't discount football's real selling point. In this country, the definition of masculinity is narrower than the blades on Weir's skates. Violence fits, and not much else. In Russia, skating and ballet express passion, a manly virtue. Weir doesn't even pretend to fit the American mold. He deliberately shatters it. For example: -- During his first group interview in Turin, he used the word "princessy'' to describe himself as a traveler and instantly became an Olympic legend. -- He tells people he earned the nickname "Tinkerbelle'' from former Olympian Nicole Bobek, who bestowed it on him because of his tendency to flit about. -- After he finished second in the short program Tuesday night, he explained his itinerary for the day and concluded with "Then I did my hair and my fake face.'' -- He wears a chain with the letter "D" around his neck, in tribute to the Christina Aguilera song "Dirty.'' In theory, Weir should feel more at home in the States, where individuality is ostensibly prized, than he ever could in Russia. But he was fascinated by Russia's history of political repression and tumult at an early age, even before he started skating. The skating- mad country has come to love Weir back. He has a jersey with his name in Cyrillic spelled out in sequins on the sleeve. The Soviet jacket with the once-dreaded "CCCP" on the chest bothered officials from the U.S. Figure Skating Association, who didn't know what to think the first time they saw Weir wearing a Cold War artifact. "They've talked to us about it,'' Weir's coach, Priscilla Hill, said, "and they understand where it's coming from.'' It wasn't the first time he had unnerved American skating officials. His wisecracking drug and alcohol metaphors (an old costume was "a Care Bear on acid'') prompted attempts to polish him for public consumption. For the most part, though, he is a natural with the media -- smart, witty, insightful. When he was asked whether he worried about setting a good example for children, he gave an answer that transcended spin doctoring: "I don't think there should be one role model for all kids. I want to be a role model for kids who feel different and stifled, kids that I was like, kids who feel like they can't say what they want.'' Elite figure skaters have very constricted lives. Weir has tried to teach himself French as well as Russian. He has established a rapport with Plushenko, whose skating style looks less classically Russian than the American champion's. Or as Weir put it: "I think Plushenko is a very modern Russia, as it is now. I'm more from the Baryshnikov era.'' As if to prove his point, he danced beautifully around the question of his national loyalty. "Being American and being accepted into another culture,'' he said, "I suppose that's what being an Olympian is all about.'' ------------------------------------ Weir makes statement on international stage Flamboyant U.S. skater shows he's not all talk with strong short program Robert Laberge / Getty Images TURIN, Italy - Johnny Weir stood out among all the clumsy bullfighters, pirates and princes, and not just because of the Swan- Boy costume, which, let me tell you, was quite the rig. "It weighs more than I do," he said. "It's the rhinestones." You never know what to expect out of Weir's mouth, but you can always expect it to be frank. After his performance in the Olympic men's figure skating short program, it's frankly not out of the question to expect a medal from him, either. Weir is here. He's arrived. The three-time U.S. champion has entertained us for some time with his reflexive wit, but in his Olympic debut Weir finally showed he's a skater of international substance, too, ready to become the premier American male in this sport. Weir's swan routine, for which he received the second-highest marks of the evening, a personal best 80 points, was muscular, cleanly skated and expressive, and the outfit didn't hurt a bit. It was complete with plunging white satin streaks representing feathers, and a single red glove on his hand, for the beak, which he refers to as "Camille." "I'm taking Camille off," Weir announced in the hallway outside of the Palavela ice rink. Maybe there is a more appealing American athlete at the Winter Games than Weir, but it's doubtful. This is a 21-year-old who mopped his own floor in the athletes' village because he thought it was dirty. He looks like a sprite, a handsome elf. But he talks like he's in the grip of truth serum. For instance, he prepared for his Olympic debut by eating a couple of oranges and sleeping for most of the day. "Then I got up and did my hair, and put on my fake face," he said. It was great that the judges liked his enchantment of a program, he said, but he didn't really think he skated so well. He felt "lethargic," and in the footwork, "I was tripping all over myself." For his long program, Weir hasn't decided whether to attempt a quadruple jump. It depends entirely on his mood, how he feels when he gets out of bed that day. "I could very likely wake up and feel horrible, like Nick Nolte's mug shot," he said. As far as the gold medal, that's over. The favorite, Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, will win the medal unless, as Weir points out, "he falls three times. And then maybe somebody could squeeze by by a point or so." This is all typical Weir talk, and personally, I could listen to it forever. Usually, athletes can be divided into two types of talkers, those who fall back on cliches or canned sentences, and those who say provocative things for the attention. Weir is neither. He'sjust a kid who hasn't yet learned any artifice. For instance, Weir just doesn't have it in him to pretend that Plushenko is anything but utterly great, and virtually impossible to beat here. Weir probably hasn't risen to the level of challenging him yet. It will be difficult for any skater to wrest gold from Plushenko, whose performance and score of 90.66 simply overwhelmed every other competitor. Heir to the great Russian skating tradition, Plushenko seems sure to win the country's fourth consecutive gold in the men's event, a string of successes that dates from 1994, and he might be as imposing a skater as they have produced. With his stature, blond mane and ice- blue eyes, he is positively kingly on the ice. His short program, to "Tosca" by Puccini, was a piece of operatic theater that seemed to fill the entire ice. No other skater was even close to him in the height and athleticism of his jumps, or the clean edges of his landings. His spins were so perfect, his skates looked like drill bits. And he is the only skater in the world who can make footwork interesting; the speed of his reversals and switches provoked intakes of breath from the audience. But Weir's marks were a sure sign that the judges regard him as this country's comer. They were the best he's received in an international competition and represented a significant step up, as they placed him ahead of Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel, the reigning world champion, behind whom Weir had placed fourth last March. Weir was one of the few skaters all night to finish cleanly, and his program withstood the harsh exposure of the Palavela rink, where every slip of the foot seemed magnified. The arena is a large, cold, industrial venue, with huge banks of white lights overhead, almost phosphorous in their intensity, and bright aluminum benches and box seats. And then there were the cool stares of the judges at rink-side. "For the judges to give me that kind of love and support is encouraging for the long program," eir said. "I think they're starting to understand who I am and what I'm all about and starting to reward me." Part of Weir's charm is his openness in a sport that is all about contrivance and bad acting. Skating is all brocade, tulle, velveteen, leatherette and mesh, flying bits of ribbon and little gloves. Among the performances in the short programs was a cringe-making James Bond routine, and a guy imitating a typewriter. Amid all these devices, Weir doesn't seem to have a genuinely self- conscious bone in his body. He talks, and skates, from his heart. The great thing about the Olympics is that sometimes, the competition actually breaks through the commercialism. The Games are fully underway, and the really fresh and captivating American athletes are beginning to declare themselves, not just the personalities prepackaged by their sponsors, or in TV commercials. Bode Miller and Michelle Kwan preoccupied us before we arrived in Turin. But it's athletes like Weir who engage us without warning. "It's something I'm very proud of, something I wasn't expecting," he said of his performance. Nobody else really was, either. And that was the charm of it. © 2006 The Washington Post Company ------------------------------------ Weir wears self-portrait of an artist February 15, 2006 BY GREG COUCH SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement TURIN, Italy -- You should have seen what figure skater Johnny Weir wore Tuesday night. It was some sort of multi-pastel knit scarf, with a fur-looking wrap around his waist. How did he skate in that? He didn't. That's what he wore hours later, after taking second place in the Olympic men's short program, on the way back to his room. He trails Russian Evgeni Plushenko, who is a near-lock to become the fifth consecutive Russian or Soviet man to win figure-skating gold Thursday. What we can say about Weir for sure, comfortably, is that he is a character. His skating performance is no act; it's him. During the competition, he dressed like a swan, wearing a red glove on his right hand to represent the swan's beak. He named the glove Camille. Seriously. And he isn't wild about living in these athlete dorm rooms in Turin. "I'm very princessy as far as travel is concerned,'' he said. "I hate carrying my own luggage. The beds aren't very soft. I'm roughing it. For me, it's the same as going out in the woods.'' You don't find many guys saying they like to be princessy, but that's Weir. Some of you won't care about that, and some will roll your eyes at figure skating. But give Weir a minute here. It is his ability and willingness to express himself, through clothes, music, athleticism, that is making him America's best figure skater. This is about honesty and artistry. Weir is a character, yes. But he might be the most honest person you will meet. He is honest with himself, honest about himself, about his feelings, his surroundings. And he is so well in touch, and so athletic, too, that it works to put him in contention to win a medal. Let me address this head-on: This isn't about whether he's gay because we don't know that, and it's none of our business anyway. But he is so openly flamboyant, so effeminate in a flaunting sort of way, that he's a test of the homophobic, not-that-there's-anything- wrong-with-that crowd anyway. "It's over, it's done,'' he said after his routine. "It's Valentine's Day. I can go buy myself a rose and some chocolate now.'' He was still in the swan thing. Then he suddenly seemed unable to move his arm the way he wanted. "Sorry,'' he said. "This material gets stuck in the rhinestones.'' See, skating is part athleticism, part artistry. So many times, you see skaters who can do these big jumps, spinning four times around, that you think that's all the sport is about. It's not. It's supposed to be about a feel, a dance on ice. It's not all so left-brained. It's not throwing a ball in a basket, and that counts as two points. You can't score art objectively. And that's what bugs me about the new scoring system, which is half tallying for tricks done and half report card on the details of transitions and things like that. I visited the Sistine Chapel before the Olympics and can imagine judges giving Michelangelo two points for that brilliant red on the ceiling, three for the blend to the next image. Real art is about being honest. And sometimes that honesty is missing in figure skating. "This costume weighs as much as I do, by the way,'' Weir said. "There are three layers.'' He went on to describe the flesh layer, the Lycra layer, something about the beads and feathers. At the national championships, he was asked to contrast his program with a competitor's. "With mine, [spectators] wanted to sit back with a cognac and a cigarette and go, 'Ahhhhhh,''' Weir said. "His was more of a shot of vodka and a line of cocaine.'' The skating upper-ups were uppity about that and asked him to be careful about what he says. The thing is, he can't. When he starts blabbing, funny things come out. Honest things. And they aren't an attempt to make a show of his honesty. He just has no filter on his words. He talked about the Chinese pairs skaters from Monday night. The woman suffered a serious and painful fall and, after six minutes, continued to skate anyway. "That girl, I would buy her diamonds if I could afford it,'' he said. "It seemed like a fall that could render someone unable to have children.'' He was asked if he would have the nerve to try a quadruple jump in the free skate Thursday. It would depend, he said, on whether he feels perfect enough to go for it. "I could wake up and feel horrible, like Nick Nolte's mug shot,'' he said. He complained, too, that he had swept his dorm room three times, and it was still dusty. And he talked about his performance Tuesday as a little flat. He feels all of these things. He wears the makeup and strange get-up that all the skaters wear. Many of them are wearing it all to create something. Weir doesn't have to invent it. That's what he really is. Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. 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