Just a miniature post, mainly letting you guys know (if you guys even exist) whats going on. As you may or may not know, I've recently started college and it's been pretty hectic getting into the groove of things. It's been great fun, making new friends, going to parties, having hangovers and having to stay awake on the train to avoid being robbed. It's week five and I should be settled in by now but last week I was set back by a rather mysterious illness. Bedridden, feeling like shit, had to catch the train home to rest for the week. All better now. I think with all the things I have to do I'll have to cut posts to every two weeks as well. I know, first it was cut down to pint-size posts, now it's pint-sized posts every two weeks. If you actually follow this blog it may or may not kill you. But it makes life easier because I don't have as much time to dedicate to this blog as I used to. In my course I have to keep on top of assignments, spend time in the library researching all sorts of different artists and movements, and keep adding to an A4 visual diary which I must fill by the end of the semester, in fact I have to complete two of these. One for my major, multi-dimensional and then one of my minors, drawing. And then in my spare time I must visit different art galleries which is hard considering I spend most of my time in Ballarat which only has one decent art gallery and we're only allowed to use two exhibitions from this gallery for the semester. I have to spend my weekends in art galleries in the city, that's taking away from my only two days at home. So not fair! Of course I must also come in to the MD studio to add to works that I should be finishing in class time. Funnily enough seven hours a week isn't quite enough to get shit done. And in any other time I must undertake self-initiated works which I must show to my teachers at the mid-semester reviews which are in about three weeks. Shit! I've barely done stuff in my journal as it is and as I sit here I have an assignment due tomorrow, research to do before I go home for two weeks and and acting students are creating an unending amount of ruckus. They're great people but god damn they're loud. Slam, bash, crash, stomp. It's unbelieveable how much noise a small group of people can make, particularly in a stairwell with signs that ask for quiet.
In a nutshell, that's whats going on at the moment. It's been fun letting a group of strangers know what's going on at Uni. Perhaps I'll start another blog, one that is basically the goings on of Uni life. I hardly expect anyone to read it but it'll be fun just to write and look back on some day, assuming google doesn't delete it.
I'm not sure when I'll get time to update, leotard-wise, so bye bye for now guys. I've got shit to do.
Tuesday 26 March 2013
Monday 11 March 2013
Sylvia P Designs Part Two
Almost a month to the day since the last post. Yeah, I know you all thought, "FFS, not another dead blog". I apologise, life has been fairly busy. One week I went away with my friends to the beach, got sunburnt, had my first hangover, life was good. The next week I had orientation for Uni, then the next week was my first week at Uni and last week I honestly couldn't be bothered, and I had some work to do.
On a positive note, international gymnastics is back! (At least as far as gymnastics that I can watch as opposed to World Cup Events, Gymnix etc which I cannot watch). I've finally got around to finding less than legit copies of the American Cup and the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup. I know, NLSC isn't exactly an international event but it is televised and it shows a lot of major talent in upcoming gymnasts. It's also a great event to give the world a look at gymnasts they'll see in the future, either in the elite scene or the NCAA scene. I watch events like the Top Ten and the Super Six and think, "I know this girl, she was from (insert meet)" and it's great, you can really see these girls grow with time.
As for the American Cup it's one of the first major international meets. I'm not that technical with rules so I don't know how the girls were selected this year, but I do know how they are normally selected. I'm just guessing a lot of other gymnasts that you'd expect to see are injured, resting or moving on to other things *cough* enjoying their newfound celebrity *cough*. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I do believe that being out of the gym for too long will decrease your chances of being in any future teams.
For example you can look to Nastia and Shawn, both successful at the '08 Olympics and they earned their success, no doubts about it. But they both accepted endorsements and became celebrities going on to do other things. That's all great but when you consider coming back you have to think long term, "If I expect to come back by X Olympics I should start training at this time so I need to plan ahead" as opposed to leaving it to the last minute like both women did. Shawn couldn't come back because of her knee and Nastia was great but left it too long to come back, especially regarding bars. But I think that Nastia knew that the US had a plethora of young, talented women who could bring home the gold so there wasn't as much pressure for her to come back, as well as her choice to attend University in New York.
And then on the other hand you have girls like Jana Bieger and Bridget Sloan and they continued to train and compete and in Bridget's case she earned the All Around title at Worlds in '09. And now both at successful NCAA gymnasts, earning college educations and competing in an environment with less pressure than the elite scene. Of course I understand that the circumstances were different and Bridget and Jana didn't have the same opportunities and fame but Nastia and Shawn could have gone on to NCAA and that would be amazing. I often look at elites and think, once they're done here they'd be great at college gymnastics. It truly is a different world and I think it'd be great for a lot of gymnasts.
Alright, rant over. Time for actual leotard reviews.
I just looked through the folder, this week will be nice for the most part. And here's a lovely example of well thought out design. I love the peachy colour with the white and black detail, you could order this leo in any combination of colours, at least at long as the detail stayed black. I even love the little cutout in the back. It's a nice innovative feature that I haven't seen before. The one thing that I dislike is the 3/4 sleeves. I've said it before, I think they ran out of fabric.
I think this was meant for competitive aerobics but 1) This is Leotards and Rhinestones and 2) Who cares, it's normal enough to be used in artistic gymnastics. Others, you have to see to believe. I like the colour combination, it's nice. But I dislike the swirls, they're so not well placed. I think the leo could even do without the gold, but it'd be nice to find a way to incorporate it in without being gaudy. Beyond that it's not bad but not excellent. Nice
When people say Australia this is what I think of, the Southern Cross. I think take away the weird blue bits at the end of the sleeves, change the back into something else and we're good. It's not over the top and you could use it in international competition for the Australian team as opposed to the club that uses it. It's simple and you can see that it's clearly Australia without being like the the British and placing a giant Union Jack on every leotard.
I like this for the most part. The colour is a little light and girly, and the detail on the sleeves, god damn. it looks like someone spilled the rhinestones and dropped a leotard covered in glue on it.
Haha! Here we go. Change the shiny fabric to ordinary stuff and we have something that belongs in the '80s and '90s. I appreciate the interesting design and the daring that it takes to go there and make something like this. I really think it doesn't work. On the back the 'V' shape looks lopsided and wrong, not to mention it seems to make the mannequin's butt look longer than it is. On the front the 'V' shape looks like it's cutting off the boobs on the mannequin. It could possibly work on a prepubescent gymnast so that it doesn't looks like the 'V' shape is in the wrong position.
That's about all for now. What is the next competition? Visa's? Then Pac Rim? Is there even a Pac Rim this year? I don't bloody know, my competitions folder is limited to whatever competitions I can get and not everything that goes on in the year. If that's the case it'll be a damn long wait till - Oh I forgot, the Covergirl Classic. I'm not sure about Top Ten and Super Six, when I got those it was months after the actual competition. Ahh well, I suppose I'll just keep checking TCG's blog to find out. It's so informative!
On a positive note, international gymnastics is back! (At least as far as gymnastics that I can watch as opposed to World Cup Events, Gymnix etc which I cannot watch). I've finally got around to finding less than legit copies of the American Cup and the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup. I know, NLSC isn't exactly an international event but it is televised and it shows a lot of major talent in upcoming gymnasts. It's also a great event to give the world a look at gymnasts they'll see in the future, either in the elite scene or the NCAA scene. I watch events like the Top Ten and the Super Six and think, "I know this girl, she was from (insert meet)" and it's great, you can really see these girls grow with time.
As for the American Cup it's one of the first major international meets. I'm not that technical with rules so I don't know how the girls were selected this year, but I do know how they are normally selected. I'm just guessing a lot of other gymnasts that you'd expect to see are injured, resting or moving on to other things *cough* enjoying their newfound celebrity *cough*. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I do believe that being out of the gym for too long will decrease your chances of being in any future teams.
For example you can look to Nastia and Shawn, both successful at the '08 Olympics and they earned their success, no doubts about it. But they both accepted endorsements and became celebrities going on to do other things. That's all great but when you consider coming back you have to think long term, "If I expect to come back by X Olympics I should start training at this time so I need to plan ahead" as opposed to leaving it to the last minute like both women did. Shawn couldn't come back because of her knee and Nastia was great but left it too long to come back, especially regarding bars. But I think that Nastia knew that the US had a plethora of young, talented women who could bring home the gold so there wasn't as much pressure for her to come back, as well as her choice to attend University in New York.
And then on the other hand you have girls like Jana Bieger and Bridget Sloan and they continued to train and compete and in Bridget's case she earned the All Around title at Worlds in '09. And now both at successful NCAA gymnasts, earning college educations and competing in an environment with less pressure than the elite scene. Of course I understand that the circumstances were different and Bridget and Jana didn't have the same opportunities and fame but Nastia and Shawn could have gone on to NCAA and that would be amazing. I often look at elites and think, once they're done here they'd be great at college gymnastics. It truly is a different world and I think it'd be great for a lot of gymnasts.
Alright, rant over. Time for actual leotard reviews.
That's about all for now. What is the next competition? Visa's? Then Pac Rim? Is there even a Pac Rim this year? I don't bloody know, my competitions folder is limited to whatever competitions I can get and not everything that goes on in the year. If that's the case it'll be a damn long wait till - Oh I forgot, the Covergirl Classic. I'm not sure about Top Ten and Super Six, when I got those it was months after the actual competition. Ahh well, I suppose I'll just keep checking TCG's blog to find out. It's so informative!
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