• "The Portlandian" - September 10, 2018 edition

    From Terry Hall@21:1/5 to All on Tue Sep 11 23:56:56 2018
    XPost: alt.fan.tonya-harding

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    The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News

    September 10, 2018 Edition
    (C) 2018 Portland Ice Skating Society
    http://www.pdxiss.org *****************************************************************

    Yes, it's another edition of "The Portlandian". And given what
    Tonya's been up to in the past weeks, we'd like to say a big
    "howdy, pardner" to all our subscribers. As usual there's lot's
    of Tonya news in store, so lets kick it right off with:


    TONYA TAKES TEXAS

    Not the title of a '70s porn movie, nor a chain saw massacre. But
    something far more interesting. In fact, it's got to be the most
    eagerly anticpated thing to hit the Lone Star State since the
    revelation of who shot J.R. Ewing.

    They say that everything's bigger in Texas, and they don't come
    much bigger than Tonya!

    Tonya recently did another live post-movie chat after a screening
    of "I, Tonya" in Austin on Aug. 14 and 15 at the Alamo Drafthouse
    South Lamar. Tonya spoke to the audience afterwards and then
    stood and greeted them for over 2 hours, taking selfies with
    fans. A report from someone on the scene says "they were so
    thrilled to meet her... What a great experience for her and the
    audience". There she also met Neon co-founder and Drafthouse
    cinema chain owner Tim League.

    Tonya posted this picture of herself on Instagram - and it's
    attracted lots of positive comments:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BmZWxSvH2Hj/?taken-by=therealtonyaharding

    Alamo Drafthouse has also posted this picture of Tonya's post-
    movie Q&A on their Facebook page:

    https://www.facebook.com/AlamoAustin/photos/a.1812162935505920/1812166128838934/


    TONYA COOKS UP A STORM

    They say that if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
    That's the challenge that Tonya will be facing according to this
    article in Portland's favorite fish-wrapper, which is reporting
    that she'll be appearing in a special celebrity edition of "Worst
    Cooks in America" early next year:

    https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/life-and-culture/erry-2018/08/4330a993776143/tonya-harding-is-coming-back-t.html

    The O-rag quotes Allison Page, president of HGTV and Food Network
    as the source, who revealed the news at the Television Critics
    Association 2018 summer press tour back in July: "This week, we
    wrapped up filming on 'Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity
    Edition,' which will return to the screen early next year. This
    season, Anne Burrell and Tyler Florence take on the best of the
    worst celebrity cooks, from Tonya Harding to Morgan Fairchild, to
    see if they can help them find kitchen redemption."

    Will Tonya repeat her stunning success on Dancing With The Stars
    in the kitchen? Or will her culinary skills be more a case of
    Moldy Old Dough? You'll have to watch it all the way through to
    find out, but our source within the Tonya camp tells us "she had
    a blast doing it".


    COFFEE, TEA, OR TONYA?

    Meanwhile, Portland legal ethics instructor Stuart Teicher had
    the good fortune to sit next to Tonya on a plane as she was
    flying back home after completing filming on her "Worst Cooks"
    appearance, and took this photo with her:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BlzK6lcARdm/?hl=en

    Like many people who have met Tonya in person, he was captivated
    by her charm, personality and good humor:

    "I just sat next to @therealtonyaharding all the way from New
    Jersey to #Portland, #Oregon. She is one of the nicest people
    I’ve ever met! Tonya, it was a pleasure to meet you and I wish
    you the best of luck in everything!"

    Who wants "Snakes on a Plane" when you can have Tonya on a plane
    instead? It's far more pleasant.


    THE SKATES OF SAN FRANCISCO

    A detailed account of Tonya's San Francisco appearance from March
    has been posted by moderator Dan Han-Klein. This also includes a
    video of Dana's Q&A with Tonya, where she discusses watching the
    film for the first time, the politics of skating, landing the
    triple axel, meeting her husband, and her advice to others:

    https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/03/29/what-we-learned-watching-i-tonya-with-tonya-harding

    "In spite of being in the public eye for so long, she too felt
    a bit nervous before the Q&A. Once on stage, I could tell she
    truly appreciates having a packed theater full of support.
    She absorbs the reassurance from the crowd like a sponge,
    soaking up the encouragement as if it could wipe away the
    years of negativity aimed towards her. She is blunt, caring,
    and - as you'll see in the video below - surprisingly funny."

    "They say never meet your heroes, but they say nothing about
    meeting villains. The vilified Tonya Harding is a creature of
    the past. The Tonya I met that day stayed after the Q&A to
    take photos with every single fan who wanted one. Her
    athletic prowess still reared its head. She playfully lifted
    me up into the air at one point (please look out for the
    pairs skating team of Harding/Han-Klein coming to the ice
    soon). We bonded over the miracle of Spanx, various
    respective sports injuries, and hell, we even did shots
    together."

    By the way, this was not Tonya's first visit to San Francisco -
    back in June 2002 we reported on a previous visit to that city
    where she met the then Mayor, Willie Brown, and posed for photos
    on a trolley bus:

    http://pdxiss.org/port49.htm

    http://pdxiss.org/sf_mayor.jpg

    http://pdxiss.org/sf_trolley.jpg


    A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARDING

    A few further reports of Tonya's rooftop appearance in L.A. back
    in July have also now surfaced. Not much detail in this one, but
    a couple of photos of Tonya, including one with a couple of fans:

    http://fangirlish.com/skyline-sound-cinema-i-tonya/

    There's also some footage of Tonya's pre-movie Q&A session.
    Poorly filmed with a cellphone from the looks of it, but better
    than nothing (you'd think Neon/Alamo would film these things
    themselves):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJ7CrI7kzM

    Another detailed article, though unfortunately this writer seemed
    more hung up on Tonya's politics than interested in the rest of
    her story:

    https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/07/falling-out-of-love-with-tonya-harding.html


    TONYA TRAILERS DEFINITELY NOT TRASH

    Tonya has had to put up with many feeble jokes about being
    trailer trash over the years, but this time she's having the last
    laugh thanks to trailers of a different kind.

    The Oscars may be well in the rear-view mirror by now, but
    somebody forgot to tell "I, Tonya", which is still racking up the
    silverware. This time it's won two Golden Trailer Awards for Neon
    and its advertising agency Zealot. "I Tonya: Haters" won Best
    Independent Trailer while the "mirror" trailer won the award for
    "Most Original TV Spot (for a feature film)":

    http://www.goldentrailer.com/gta19-nominees/

    You can view the trailers here - if you haven't seen them already
    (which we know you have):

    http://zealotinc.com/


    TONYA SPOOF TAKES THE CHECKERED FLAG AT ESPYS

    And while on the topic of trailers, back in July ESPN's Espy
    Awards featured race-car driver Danica Patrick doing a fairly
    bang-on parody of the "I, Tonya" trailer:

    https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/07/danica-patrick-and-aaron-rodgers-star-in-i-tonya-parody-at-espys

    The sketch, considered a highlight of the show, was introduced by
    Allison Janney and featured Patrick's boyfriend Aaron Rodgers in
    the role of a Gillooly-type character, complete with bad
    mustache, who commissions a "hit" on the race car of rival Helio
    Castroneves (who does a pretty good Nancy impersonation).
    Definitely one of the better parodies out there, even down to
    using the same typeface and alot of the same music (and a real
    parrot).

    On the subject of parodies, Alamo has also done this other one
    featuring Paul Walter Hauser in his Shawn Eckardt role, getting
    kicked out of a cinema for failing to silence his pager - all
    done in the format of a "Hard Copy"-type tabloid TV show:

    https://drafthouse.com/news/shocker-tonya-hardings-bodyguard-speaks


    BOY BAND DEBUTS TONYA SINGLE

    Hard on the heels of the Sufjan Stevens Tonya song, boy band
    Brockhampton premiered their new song, simply called "Tonya", on
    the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in June:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/brockhampton-tonya-new-album-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon-ameer-vann-latest-a8409461.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18GJTU7N1M

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0s10oRyHI

    Billboard describes "Tonya" as "a soulful track that heavily
    features the band's signature mix of soulful singing and rapping,
    with a big beat breaking in mid-way through the performance. By
    far one of the moodiest songs that the group has released,
    'Tonya,' paints themes of family disapproval, loss and grappling
    with success."

    In spite of its title, it only briefly mentions her, in Kevin
    Abstract's rap: "My ghost still haunt ya/ My life is 'I,
    Tonya'/Big eyed monster, only face to conquer/I hated songs about
    fame 'cause this stuff meant nothing/Until them headlines came,
    the first flight I'm jumpin'."

    This is not the first mention of Tonya in rap: references to
    Tonya & Nancy frequently turn up in gangsta rap, being mentioned
    in at least 12 known instances. In addition, a rap called
    "Classic Case" by Emma "Lil Freckles" Carroll samples
    Nancy's post-whack cries;

    https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/bry8w6/nancy-kerrigan-versus-tonya-harding-a-beef-timeline

    Perhaps Tonya could take up rap - we've had Ice T and Ice Cube,
    so why not "Ice Sk8a". She's already got the badass image
    necessary to be a rapper.


    THE BITCH IS BACK

    Tonya also gets a prominent mention in a new book by feminist
    writer Allison Yarrow. In "90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the
    Failed Promise of Gender Equality," Yarrow continues the re-
    appraisal of that decade's most controversial women, such as
    Tonya, Marcia Clark, Anita Hill, Monica Lewinsky Anna Nicole
    Smith and Lorena Bobbitt - and argues that overall the 90's was a
    decade of setbacks for female progress. Yarrow calls this
    "Bitchification":

    "The trailblazing women of the 90s were excoriated by a deeply
    sexist society," writes Yarrow. "That’s why we remember them
    as bitches, not victims of sexism". "The advent of the 24-
    hour news cycle reinforced society’s deeply entrenched
    sexism. Meanwhile, marketers hijacked feminism and poisoned
    girlhood for a generation of young women."

    https://newrepublic.com/article/149491/1990s-got-wrong

    She also argues that Nancy got the short straw in this atmosphere
    as well:

    http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/article195679479.html

    http://time.com/5310256/90s-gender-equality-progress/

    https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-bitchified-decade-were-still-paying-for/

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/07/26/why-certain-slur-hasn-gone-away/WwPQKsJButDlnShdjX80cM/story.html

    https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062412348/90s-bitch/

    http://allisonyarrow.com/90s-bitch/


    TONYA INSPIRES ON THE CATWALK

    Tonya has also proven an inspiration for fashion designers in
    recent months, in particular Adam Selman:

    https://fashionista.com/2018/02/adam-selman-fall-2018-beauty-hair-makeup

    "Adam has a lot of really cool inspirations, her being one of
    them," says Holly Falcone, the nail artist behind the
    blinged-out manicure, who insisted that the skater has been
    an ongoing inspiration for Selman, rather than some fleeting
    obsession resulting from the biopic. "Just in general, her
    costumes were always really over the top and her nails were
    always done, even 20 years later, like in The New York Times,
    she's clutching her skates and has these long nails."


    Now here's something that you thought you'd never see - Tonya
    being referenced in an advertisement by someone in Portland:

    https://www.depop.com/naturelizard/naturelizard-sweet-early-90s-avia-jacket/

    Sweet early 90s Avia jacket. Very Tonya Harding. Great
    condition! Bust: 22.5” length: 24”. Free shipping! 7 months
    ago, Portland, OR, USA


    Not the title of an early-70's Hannah-Barbera cartoon but a 90's
    fashion fad that's been revived, thanks to Tonya:

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/mar/01/the-scrunch-bunch-the-surprising-return-of-the-scrunchie

    On I, Tonya, the use of scrunchies had the opposite meaning:
    it was a sign of Harding’s pride in her appearance that she so
    closely matched her scrunchies to her outfits. Most were
    created by Adruitha Lee, the hair designer, "who was
    incredibly crafty," says Johnson. "She and her and assistant
    would make a lot of them, or find them in cheap and cheerful
    shops – drug stores – which is also where Tonya's 'Chanel'
    earrings came from. Sometimes we would take those and
    embellish them. Margot loved them and would take them home and
    wear them."


    This article praises Tonya stylish choice of a Louis Vuitton
    Speedy handbag:

    http://www.instyle.com/news/tonya-harding-louis-vuitton-speedy-handbag

    "But one visual element stood out to us above all others:
    Harding's favorite Louis Vuitton sidekick. The classic,
    beloved, and expensive handbag ($970; us.louisvuitton.com) has
    found a home in the closets of many celebrities, but no one
    carried it with quite as much panache as Harding did."

    How did Tonya come to possess such an expensive bag? Was it real,
    or a knockoff? Or a gift from an admirer? Unfortunately the
    article sheds no light on the mystery. But it was also an
    inspiration for "I, Tonya"'s costume designers:

    https://fashionista.com/2018/01/i-tonya-movie-film-costumes-hair-makeup

    "There's something about Tonya that's surprisingly subtle to
    me," explains Johnson. "She's very neat and very proud; she
    always has her turtleneck tucked in and her leather bomber
    jacket and her Louis Vuitton Speedy bag and her Chanel [double
    C] earrings. It's these little details that show her pride
    that she's made it and that she's proud of herself and the way
    she dresses." To get the leather bomber right, Johnson
    combined the body of one piece found at a costume house with a
    button-detail collar from another jacket. "There were a lot of
    solutions based on lack of money," she adds, about assembling
    over 100 costume changes for Robbie.


    Finally, it seems that skating in general is inspiring designers:

    http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/figure-skater-style

    Thanks also to the acclaimed film I, Tonya, where Margot
    Robbie plays shamed skater Tonya Harding, who was embroiled in
    an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan, skating is having a
    moment in the spotlight. Thank god there is finally a
    fashionable sport. As I have written in this column before,
    too long have our eyes suffered from badly dressed footballers
    in drop crotch denims.


    WELCOME TO THE CLUB

    Alysa Liu has become the tenth female figure skater (and 4th
    American) to enter the triple axel club after landing it at the
    Asian Open Trophy in Bangkok, Thailand in early August. At 12
    years old, she's also the youngest. May we offer our
    congratulations!

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/02/this-east-bay-figure-skater-just-landed-an-historic-jump/


    TONYA TURNS UP IN TED TALK

    You just can't avoid Tonya these days: a random Tonya reference
    turned up in this guy's TED talk about procrastination when I
    was listening to the radio recently. It's about 3 minutes in.
    Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (literally):

    http://www.tspr.org/post/what-happens-brain-extreme-procrastinator

    Here's Tim Urban's complete talk if you want to listen to it,
    plus a transcript:

    https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU

    https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=490626164

    I've been meaning to listen to it, but I just haven't got
    around to it...

    *****************************************************************
    VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:

    PortIce - http://www.pdxiss.org
    David House - http://www.tonyaharding.org
    Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
    Puppetboy - http://www.usapaul.net/tonya/
    Valerie Smith - http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/LilHam.html
    Swan Lake - http://members.tripod.com/~TonyaHarding/index.html
    Blades of Gold - http://members.tripod.com/tmhfan/index.html
    THNK1994 Museum - https://www.facebook.com/THNK1994/ *****************************************************************

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