I’ll admit to being more or less criminally ignorant of Mr Weir before I saw this clip of his interpretation of ‘Poker Face’ last year.
I also know very little about ice skating, but I know one thing: this isn’t ice skating. This is energetically sliding around in a kinky catsuit while shimmying and gesturing and pulling coquettish faces, and generally flickering around the ice like a low blue flambé. And I’m all for it. I don’t know about you but it brought me out in goose-pimples. Even better than the climax to Baz Luhrman’s best film Strictly Ballroom, not least because unlike the protagonist of that film Weir doesn’t have to pretend he’s dancing with anyone else but himself.
It’s like watching a humbling evolutionary leap of the human species and the vindictive triumph of an impossible seven-year-old’s desire to make everyone look at them at the wedding reception disco – all combined in one glittery package. Seldom have skater and soundtrack been better matched. In fact, it deserves a (possibly) new noun. This is… Gagacity.
I think this kind of performance shows what fearsome things today’s generation of young men are capable of. Flamboyance can be a very powerful, very liberating quality and doesn’t have to be something just for flamers. Or Lady G.
I wish I were capable of it. But I I’d probably have to have Weir’s figure, not to mention his youth, to pull it off. That and a hefty pair of cojones.
Natty: I suspect she also ganked something from your favourite in ‘Bad Romance’: Ra, Ra…
I agree. He’s an eloquent poster boy for real metrosexuality. But on the whole I think he says it even better on the ice-rink. With tassles.
I was very impressed by Johnny at the press conference. He was very eloquent, thoughtful and dare I say Morrissey -esque.
I think masculinity is what you believe it to be. To me, masculinity is all my perception. I think masculinity and femininity is something that’s very old fashioned. There’s a whole new generation of people that aren’t defined by their sex or their race or who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in and I that”s the most important thing
I beg to differ with the original assessment. This definitely was skating – & would have appeared even more so if the camerawork had been better: half the time it wasn’t on his footwork!! Then again, that might have been due to the magnetic personally of Mr. Weir! 🙂
lainey – thank you for showing us Mr. Weir’s mature reaction to the 2 Canadian anal orifices – it matched his gracious acceptance of his Olympic scoring (but, to be fair, he did completely miss one of his spins – he was great, but the others were just a bit technically superior).
Goldberg said:”They’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him,” he said. “It sets a bad example.
A little dense, if he means gay: they already are! Perhaps this will set a new standard for those unbathed and hairy bears, e.g Andrea; Imagine her in that outfit flipping around on the ice! Goldberg for one would be speach less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-MAmhGKsU
Johnny Weir held a press conference to address remarks made by two veteran sports commentators during the Olympics suggesting he is setting a bad example.
He’s not asking for an apology. He says he believes in free speech and wouldn’t want these men fired for expressing their opinion. (“I’ve heard worse in bathrooms and whatnot about me,” he quipped.) He just wants them to think before they speak — and to imagine the damage they could do to people like him and to generations of children whose parents may not give them the same freedom and support his did if they think their child will only be ridiculed for being who he or she is. “I would challenge anyone to question my upbringing and question my parents’ ideals and feelings about bringing up me and my brother, who’s completely different from me but taught very much the same way that I was,” Weir said.
“Even my gender has been questioned. I want that to be public because I don’t want 50 years from now more young boys and girls to have to go through this sort of thing and to have their whole life basically questioned for no reason other than to make a joke and to make people watch their television program,” he said. He summed up his message — ”I hope more kids can grow up the same way that I did and more kids can feel the freedom that I feel to be themselves and to express themselves” — and his belief that the concepts of masculinity and femininity are old-fashioned. “There’s a whole generation of people that aren’t defined by their sex or their race or by who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Oh, and he was robbed of a medal!!!! The judges need a good kicking.
I had no idea she ganked that sample from Boney M. Ra Ra Rasputin is my jam.
Perhaps I should go for a sheer bodystocking. I forgot to mention that the hook to Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ is sampled from Boney M’s ‘Ma Baker’. Boney M were definitely Gagacious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv53gKx0cyo&feature=related
The tights don’t go on your face, Mark, although you might prefer that! Or you could always try that with gliter on the remainder. I can see that your career is off to a bad start.
McQueen was/is Gagacious, of course, but I’m a little hard-pressed at the moment to think of any other examples, apart from Weir. And, in spite of myself, Elton John – who was perhaps proto-Gagacious in his time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ-Y25Za4Ys
“Gagacity” is a great and timely neologism. We need more of it in this world. Who in addition to Weir (and of course, Gaga herself) has been displaying it lately? Who can we add to the list of the Gagacious? McQueen, surely.
Aussies rule at everything, even criticising ice skaters for perceived non-“masculine” behaviour.
We rock.
Lainey: Thanks for the update on the fuckwit commentators. Of course, their bitchy sphincter-cramped condemnation is just more proof of Weir’s remarkable power.
The critics be dammed, Johnny Rules!!!
The crowd seem to adore him and he has so much confidence and charisma.
A much better ice skating video than the last one you posted (russian stripper)
A great Weir quote “There are some things I keep sacred. My middle name. Who I sleep with. And what kind of hand moisturizer I use.”
Canadian commentators Alain Goldberg and Claude Mailhot have been horrible to him at the Olympics…….
“This may not be politically correct,” Mailhot said during the segment, in which Weir … was shown sporting a semi-sheer, pink-and-black costume he designed himself.
“But do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?”
Goldberg replied that Weir’s feminine style may reflect badly on other male figure skaters.
“They’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him,” he said. “It sets a bad example.”
Well, at least Mailhot qualified it may be inappropriate.
“In the earlier RDS coverage of Weir, Goldberg and Mailhot also brought up South African runner Caster Semenya, who was forced to undergo gender testing following her 2009 win at the world track and field championships in Germany.
“We should make him pass a gender test at this point,” Goldberg said, and Mailhot then jokingly suggested Weir should compete in the women’s competition.
However the Australian sports commentators have been worse.
I don’t have the face for tights.
oh in your own way you’re quite flamboyant, sir!
Aw, c’mon Mark, you can do it. All it takes is buying yourself some tights, throwing some glitter in your hair and prancing around.
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