Summer Vacation

Monday my daughter had her first day of school. So soon? you ask. Well, in Panama there isn't a long summer vacation, because there isn't really a summer. It's about 90 degrees and 90% humidity all year long. (Which I'm not complaining about.) Most of the schools here begin their school year in March, making it harder for students starting school now to find the back-to-school supplies. (Oops, that was complaining.)

Excuse me, Ice Charades, does this post have anything to do with skating?

Why, yes, thanks for asking.

Now that summer is over in our household it's the perfect time to bore you in the next few posts about what I did on my summer vacation.



One of those days in July, my daughter and I went to a small-town county fair that was holding a fundraiser for the local fire department. It was a lot of fun and I think my daughter liked the bumper cars the best. They had the Scrambler, the Himalaya and the Tilt-a-Whirl among others, but I'm sure she liked the bumper cars the best.

It reminded me of my summers skating in amusement park ice shows, where we could ride all the rides for free.

A kid's dream come true!

Why could we ride for free? We had free entrance into the park and that way we got onto any of the rides before or after the shows. Plus our job was skating, which was way more fun than working the malt machine in the fair's dairy stand. (I did that job too in high school, so I make the comparison based on my own experience. That was a nightmare of a job - the malt-making one. To this day, I still can't look at a strawberry milkshake.)

But wait, better than that was my amusement park skating job in Japan. We lived IN the park. Right at the silly, little house next to the ferris wheel. Yup, three months in the park, looking out my window to see the wooden rollercoaster start up every morning. It was awesome.

Okay, okay, I wasn't thrilled and excited to see the rollercoaster every morning, but still, a lot of mornings. Good thing we skaters didn't take for granted our special living arrangements.

In fact, riding the rides wasn't enough. We turned them into competitions. (Hey, we're figure skaters with competition in our blood).

We had the bumper car contest where each of us had a large bucket of water on our lap and the person with the most water at the end of the ride (or any water, as was the case) was the winner. It was great until we saw that we had shorted out the battery-operated cars until they later dried out. Oooops.

We also had the run through the giant maze, only we were attached to two other teammates with a small rope and all three needed to do a shot at the entrance and exit of the maze.

But the cast's favorite by far was "Getting Looped on the Loop" game. You had to chug a small beer (in Japan they have beers in every size imaginable) as the rollercoaster slowly inched up to the peak before the crazy descent and on into the loop. The ride was really short - just one loop you did forward and then backwards, so we all had to do the ride five times with five small beers. This was a lot of fun and this we did, of course, after our last show of the day.

Aaaah, good times.

More On Disney

From the sound of my last post, I didn't want people to think that Ice Charades was all in a huff because she didn't get to go backstage.

I still enjoyed seeing the show and my daughter loved it.

When I saw my friend, now turned Performance Director, she whisked us downstairs and we got to sit on the bleacher seats right on by the ice. We were front and center. And when you sit next to the Performance Director, who was calling the show via her headset as well as taking notes, I noticed every skater made eye contact with her.

And some looked at me too. It made me feel a little like I was back in the gang and that they were performing for another skater ... it happens. It's exciting. But really, they were probably thinking, "Is that our new seamstress sitting next to the Director?" or "What am I going to have for dinner tonight?"

But I have to say watching the four themes of Viaje Fantastico, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan, I was reminded of a conversation I had with another skater at the Ice Capades reunion in Vegas one month ago.

Ice shows are hurting, he warned. The recession made it worse, but they were already in trouble. Just being at a reunion of an ice show that is now more and didn't have a very graceful ending was obvious. But watching four older shows, probably with recycled sets and costumes may have to be the trend of the future. It makes sense to keep the cost down. This tour had a cast of 45 skaters, which still seems like a lot, but it is down from the grand old days of ice shows (I don't know, the 70s - 80s?) when just the chorus alone was more than 45 skaters.

I think in Disney's case, they are lucky they can redo several show and the kids don't mind. At home, they watch the same movie a dozen times. But Holiday On Ice may not be able to do that. They can take the same show to new cities ... which, according to my source in Vegas is one thing HOI is looking into. They've never played the states before - hmmmm.

Not your father's ice show ...

See any blades in that photo? How about this one?



Disney On Ice produces some of the best props and costuming of any ice show out there, but I was more struck by the negative changes of the show that I saw yesterday in Panama. At least negative in this show girl's mind ...

1. Security - there is no more back stage access (or at least, that's what I was told). I understand that we're living in a different time than the innocent 80s, but most of the people that want to go backstage are not a danger to the skaters.

2. No more comps - okay, the show has to make money, but being able to get friends and family into ice shows for free was one of the best benefits of skating in a show.

But I don't want to end this post on a negative note, my six-year old daughter loved the show and I got to catch up with my first line captain - she's now the performance director - who I hadn't seen since 1984. Once again, all because of Facebook!

I've Moved ...

to a new country - one with no ice arenas. But on my first day in Panama, I saw an advertisement for Diseny On Ice!



That's right, Disney Sobre Hielo opened yesterday in Panama, my first day here. Maybe that's a good omen. So now I only have until Sunday to see it. Er, uh, I mean to take my daughter to the show. Yeah, that's it. My daughter really wants to see it.

She still would like to meet a princess, but that's probably not going to happen here.

Unlike my time in Mexico City, I've got nothing to offer to the skaters while in Panama. Our apartment is a giant mess of boxes half-way unpacked and TVs that don't work yet. We have a nice pool, but every place in Panama has a pool. I don't even know which are the good coffee shops yet.

The one thing we have is a car, in case any of the skaters want to take a ride around the city, but I bet they don't have the time. I've seen tour dates in Venezuela and Columbia as well, so I think they have a travel day on Monday, Tuesday is "Get In" day (or "Pack In" or "Move In" - whichever they call it now)and then they have shows Wed - Sunday. Then rinse and repeat.

So if anyone is reading this from Disney Sobre Hielo - Viaje Fantastico, just know that the one gringa clapping really loud out in the audience this weekend is an old pro.

... at clapping really loud for skaters.

Vacation

I've been on vacation since the first of July, but I'm about to enter the hotel zone of my trip, where there's not much free Wi-Fi to count on.

Hope to be back on-line next week.

Have a great summer - if you haven't seen any of the Tour de France yet, tomorrow will be a great day.

Disney Sobre Hielo

That's Spanish for Disney On Ice and it's now playing south of the border.

I'm so sad I won't be there when they for the Mexico City shows, because I may never live out my quest to have my daughter meet a "princess" backstage. I am a little relieved that I won't repeat my role as a Disney groupie, a.k.a. stalker, since that wasn't too cool. You can read about last year's effort in the Archive, from August 2009, in the post entitled, Miss Ice Charades Is Not Proud.

Nuff said.

So what I'll do instead is to offer a little guide to the cast and crew when they get to Mexico City of what to do if they have any free time. Anyone else reading this post can stop now, if you like.

First of all, if you're staying at the Inter-Continental, most of these suggestions will be easier. You're walking distance or a quick skip to the metro to get you around town. And don't worry about the metro - we skaters took is everywhere in Paris - this is no worse (or better).

If you're staying at the Camino Real again, you might be taking cab rides, which are dirt cheap. Last year, I took a cab from my apartment to the Camino Real hotel, about ten minutes or two miles away and it cost $1. Make sure you have small change.

#1 - if you're looking for a really different cup of coffee, very milky, very reasonable price, head to Lynis in Polanco. It's so close to the hotel Inter-Continental that a bunch of Lufthansa flight attendents that stay at the hotel go to Lynis all the time and get a discount. For the first few months that I went there they always asked if I was with Lufthansa. They do that with blonds.

Anyway, the coffee is Vera Cruz style, called cafe lechero, and it's like an old-fashioned latte.

#2 - a great place to have a drink with a view, perhaps on Sunday when the matinee is over, is the rooftop of the Holiday Inn hotel in the centro. You get an amazing view of the Zocalo and the National Palace. The food isn't great so maybe you can split some appetizers.

#3 - if you're looking for a great museum that gives you a lot of Mexico, but doesn't take a long time, head to the Museo de Arte Popular (Museum of Popular Art). Ask the front desk how to get there.

#4 - You really should go see the Ballet Folklorico! You will love it. Problem is it only plays Wednesday nights and two times on Sunday. Morning and Evening. That means the only performance you could catch would be the 9AM Sunday morning show at the Anthropology Museum. Go, really, just go. Tell the wardrobe people that travel with you to go. The costumes are amazing.

And for the first time in your life you can sympathize with someone who is busting their a$$ off way too early in the morning.

Any other questions - email me and bienvenidos a la ciudad de Mexico!

Interview with Toller

I didn't have a formal interview with him, because I'm a lousy interviewer, and Toller asks as many questions as he answers.

His curious mind has served him well.

But here are a few nuggets I asked, he answered, and I was later able to remember ...

How much time do you spend painting each day? Depends, sometimes it is the entire day.

Who lived in your house before you bought it? At one time it was a school for bad little rich kids.

He smiled when he said that.

Do you have skating dreams? Yes, his are of the competition variety where he's having trouble landing his jumps, or even getting to the ice.

Do you still choreograph in your head after hearing a song you really like? Yes, all the time.

What advice would you give to Johnny Weir?

The subject of Johnny came up a lot, partially because we watched his reality show, but also because he had just been asked this by someone in Johnny's camp. From the bits and pieces he mentioned, here you go Johnny: don't go back to competitive skating, but keep skating, and don't put money into your own show ... you always lose money on your own show. Stay true to yourself.

I sense that Toller is glad he had his life in painting along side his skating career. Skating can't last unless you want to teach or choreograph. The painting, on the other hand, will keep him very busy (and rich) for some time now.