If someone is trying to convince you that figure skating is a beautiful and wondrous sport, but you'd rather be watching either cartoons or Jodorowsky, sit down together and watch "Strawberry Ice".
Tell them it stars one of Canada's skating legends (Toller Cranston) and features several professional champions/Olympians.
Don't tell them it boasts the best special effects that 1982 Canadian television has to offer.
Tell them it's one of those skating specials - almost no dialogue, just the skating to tell the story of one person's wandering through their own dreamland.
Don't tell them about the calypso music. Or the gang fight. Or the space vortexes. Or the skating in Hell.
Tell them you don't know why it's called Strawberry Ice.
Don't tell them that watching to the end will not get you any closer to the answer of why it's called Strawberry Ice.
This skating special feels like a televised hallucination, but it is never boring. It doesn't slow down so it can be judged on technical difficulty, or elaborate on whatever the plot is supposed to be.
It's a wild visual experience that's best when it's shared, so someone can verify that you saw what you think you saw. The three times I've seen it so far, several folks and I riffed it, and laughed, and marveled, and were extremely confused... and I think we'll all be back for its re-broadcast.
Tell them it stars one of Canada's skating legends (Toller Cranston) and features several professional champions/Olympians.
Don't tell them it boasts the best special effects that 1982 Canadian television has to offer.
Tell them it's one of those skating specials - almost no dialogue, just the skating to tell the story of one person's wandering through their own dreamland.
Don't tell them about the calypso music. Or the gang fight. Or the space vortexes. Or the skating in Hell.
Tell them you don't know why it's called Strawberry Ice.
Don't tell them that watching to the end will not get you any closer to the answer of why it's called Strawberry Ice.
This skating special feels like a televised hallucination, but it is never boring. It doesn't slow down so it can be judged on technical difficulty, or elaborate on whatever the plot is supposed to be.
It's a wild visual experience that's best when it's shared, so someone can verify that you saw what you think you saw. The three times I've seen it so far, several folks and I riffed it, and laughed, and marveled, and were extremely confused... and I think we'll all be back for its re-broadcast.