TTTTT H H EEEEE
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The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News
March 14, 2003 Edition - PROUDLY SUPPORTING TONYA SINCE 1996
(C) 2003 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.geocities.com/portice
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A jam-packed issue today, with some news of Tonya's next bout, an
upcoming movie appearance for Tonya, plus an exposé of another
piece of junk journalism and a bit of fun with Speedy.
TONYA FINISHES IN SECOND PLACE IN FIRST PRO BOXING CONTEST
Regrettably Tonya has lost her first professional fight, against
opponent Samantha Browning.
The good news is that it was a split decision, with two judges
scoring it 39-38 and 39-37 in favor of Browning and the other 39-
37 in favor of Tonya.
Reports suggest that the fight was not a great one, with the
fighters mostly grappling rather than punching. Tonya looked red-
faced afterwards. In the wake of the fight Browning said of
Tonya: "She was a lot stronger than I thought, but she got weaker
as the fight progressed. I knew I had to pour it on to get the
decision and I did", indicating that Tonya was no pushover. "All
I and anyone can ask for is that we give our best and that's what
I gave," Tonya said. "I feel the fans got their money's worth
tonight". "It's not like I expected at all," she also said. "This
was much, much harder than I ever figured. But it only makes me
want to work that much harder."
"I didn't know who won," Tonya said. "I just know it was a really
hard fight. She never hurt me, I just had problems getting to her
with my punches. But it was my first fight and it was very
exciting. I look forward to fighting again."
More coverage of the bout can be found at:
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=tonya+harding
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=tonya+harding&c=news_p
hotos
http://www.eastsideboxing.com/boxing-news/sho1902.php
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports
/104591934057721.xml
http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/boxng2/boxng2.html (which
includes photos)
Linda Lewis, Tonya's godmother, had this to say:
Dear Tonya fans:
As you have heard, Tonya didn't win her first boxing match (as
a professional). But I can tell you that she had her heart in
it. I wasn't in Memphis, but I saw her train prior to her
going. She was ready. This was her first professional match. It
was a split decision. It was not a KO.
It's the blue-collar workers and people who do not come from
privilege that make this country great. Tonya didn't have
money, but made it to the very top of the sport of figure
skating. This is what inspires so many people to take her side.
Tonya is a great athlete. With her skating, she accomplished so
much; great accomplishments, that still stand in the record
books to this day. From the age of three, she wanted to skate.
She went on to become one of the greatest figure skaters ever.
Now she has chosen the sport of boxing. She will put her heart
into it, as she is a winner. She's a small petite athlete with
great talent, and great tenacity. What does she want? She wants
to do well. I have no doubt that she'll accomplish this.
She doesn't complain, but with a smile, says I have to work
harder. She wants to please her fans. She always has. She wants
to be accepted, and loved; and who doesn't? She wants to do her
best, not just for herself, but also for you. You have given
her that love and acceptance.
To all of you who sent your emails of support, I thank you. I
will see that Tonya receives them. The world hasn't seen or
heard the last from this little powerhouse. I'm very proud of
her, for who she is.
My best to you all,
Tonya's Godmother Linda
Linda also reports that Tonya hardly has a scratch on her and is
feeling great. She wants the fans to know that she is going to
work even harder and will continue to do better. She sends her
love to all and thanks for the continued support.
TONYA READIES FOR NEXT MATCH
Saturday, March 15 will see Tonya competing in her second
professional boxing match, this time in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Her opponent this time around is another first-timer, Shannon
Birmingham, who is so obscure no-one even has a picture of her. A
few more details can be found in this article by Portland's KATU
station:
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=55393
Nashville's daily newspaper, "The Tennessean", has another
article on Tonya, covering her reflections on her first fight and
an interview with her trainer:
http://www.tennessean.com/sports/columnists/climer/archives/03/03
/29559648.shtml
"The reason people are interested in her is because of her past,
but I've told her that now she can do something to change the way
people think about her now," her trainer, Jeff Hargis says. "When
we started this, my first thought was that it was a publicity
stunt," he says. "It didn't take long to find out I was wrong.
She's a competitive person, and this is a way for her to be
competitive again. The whole thing's been cathartic for her."
"There are similarities between skating and boxing. You have to
be mentally prepared and focused because any little mistake can
really cost you," Tonya says. "But I like competing one-on-one
with somebody, and you don't really do that in figure skating."
And no, depite what the paper says, she hasn't moved to the Music
City. Tonya just trains there. We've no plans to change the name
of this e-zine to "The Nashvillean" or something similar.
MORE LEGAL WOES FOR TONYA
Won't the legal system ever leave Tonya alone? February saw yet
more legal problems for her, with a judge awarding $20,000 in
damages against Tonya to her former landlord for damage allegedly
beyond fair wear and tear that occurred to the property she was
evicted from early last year. Judge John F. Nichols signed the
order Monday. Some of the damage was apparantly from pets, and
extra cleaning was needed, according to the landlord's lawyer.
TONYA FEATURES IN ROLE IN BOXING MOVIE
Several issues ago we mentioned that Tonya had been offered a
part in a low-budget independent film with a boxing theme. We're
glad to report that Tonya completed filming of those scenes back
in December on a trip to Tulsa.
The film is to be called "Prize Fighter" and is based on a true
story that the director, Mark Mason, encountered while organizing
fights in the early 1990's. The plot concerns a boxer who makes a
comeback after his wife dies suddenly. Jeff Howard, who co-wrote
the film along with Mason, informs us that a rough cut has been
prepared and comments from the distributor are positive. Tonya
was to originally play the role of the boxer's wife but now plays
the owner of a diner that serves as a "Cheers" of sorts for the
townspeople to watch the fights. She has several scenes with two
local radio DJs who play her brothers along with some scenes with
the fighter, his wife, and Howard himself, who plays the
fighter's friend. She also has a scene with Leon Spinks, but none
with Gary Busey, who also appears in the film.
The film-makers were quite pleased with their encounter with
Tonya. "She flew into Tulsa on Sat December 7th and was on set
all day December 8th. She appeared in several scenes with Phil
and Brent, two morning radio personalities with radio station
KMOD in Tulsa. On Monday morning she appeared on the Phil and
Brent show, answered questions at a press conference, and left
town around noon. All in all she did a good job on the film and
we were happy to have her".
"She came in with only two hours of rehearsal, off of an
airplane, jet-lagged, and she did a fantastic job," Mark Mason
said. "This girl has acting ability." So much for those who pooh-
poohed Tonya's acting talent in "Breakaway". Said Tonya: "It's
going to be a fabulous movie. It's like a little love story. It's
about a boxer who loses his wife, and then comes back and wins in
her honor."
Further details can be found at http://www.inherhonor.com (the
film's original working title), including an article from the
"Tulsa World" newspaper about Tonya's visit. Jeff Howard has said
that he will be updating the site with pictures of Tonya's on-set
appearances when he gets time, so be sure to check back.
EDITORIAL: WHACKO JACKO EXPOSES JUNK JOURNALISM
Many of our readers probably watched the much-hyped Martin Bashir
documentary on Michael Jackson that aired last month. As you've
probably heard, Jacko wasn't at all pleased with Bashir's exposé,
which he labeled inaccurate and deliberately misleading.
But this time it was the "exposer" who found himself being
exposed, with Jackson turning the tables. You see, Jackson had
his own cameras rolling during the interview, and two weeks later
aired his footage on Fox. This second special, fronted by Maury
Povich (a good Tonyaphile by the way), shows a totally different
story to what Bashir wanted you to see. For instance:
- one key point of controversy surrounding Jackson is that he has
an alleged desire to turn himself white through plastic surgery.
In Bashir's interview, we saw Jackson saying he has only ever had
two operations, both on his nose. Yet Jackson's own footage
reveals that they also discussed a 1984 incident in which his
hair caught fire, necessitating extensive surgery on his scalp.
He also mentioned that he suffers from a rare medical condition
that has bleached his skin. Yet Bashir left all this stuff -
surely highly relevant to the issue of Jackson's appearance - on
the floor. Why? Did he want to make Jackson look like a liar?
- in his documentary, Bashir paints a very negative portrait of
Jackson's parenting skills. Bashir claims his view towards this,
initially positive, changed after the now infamous "baby
dangling" incident in Germany and a trip to a Berlin zoo that
turned into a circus. Yet again Bashir fails to mention important
facts, like that the zoo was supposed to have been especially
closed to the public for Jackson's visit. In addition, we clearly
hear Bashir off-camera praising Jackson's relationship with
children in an interview that was recorded AFTER the incidents in
Germany. Also edited was the explanation that it was the mother
of Jackson's kids who came up with the idea of them wearing
masks, not Jackson himself.
- Bashir left out footage of Jackson sayingg nice things about his
father, leaving in only negative comments.
While as we don't want to get into a debate over whether Jacko
really is whacko or has an unhealthy interest in little boys, we
do think that this whole incident is an excellent example of the
type of manipulative trash "journalism" that we have been
complaining about for years and which Tonya has seen more than
her fair share of. Bashir's treatment of Jackson exposes Bashir
as the two-faced manipulative jerk he is, and unfortunately he's
all too typical of alot of modern journalists, who are only
interested in making the "facts" fit the story they want to tell.
It's just a pity that Tonya didn't also have her own cameras
rolling back in 1994 - maybe we'd also get the truth about that
incident as well.
SPEEDY PAINTS A PRETTY PICTURE
Here at Special Duties we've managed to achieve something that
most figure skating fans would have thought impossible - we've
found a way of making Speedy look even more stupid & ridiculous
than he is already:
http://www.geocities.com/portice/speedy.htm
It's all due to a piece of image manipulation software known as
the GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.
Although originally developed for Linux, there is also a Windows
version for those leery of giving Redmond's Operating System of
Mass Destruction the flick at this stage. The capabilities of
GIMP are reckoned by many to compare favorably to expensive
commercial packages such as Adobe Photoshop - and you can't beat
the price, as GIMP is completely free. A version for doctoring
moving pictures, formerly known as FilmGIMP, has been used on
several major Hollywood features recently including "Scooby-Doo".
We suggest that skating fans disgruntled with the Saddam of
Skating and his secret scoring systems go to http://www.gimp.org
and download it and try a few Speedy variations yourself. They'd
look perfect on t-shirts at the upcoming Worlds protest in DC
later this month, especially with a few safety pins stuck through
them in strategic places.
By the way, we found that one of the GIMP plugins produces a
bizarre swirling psychadelic effect eerily reminiscent of the
opening titles of early 70's Jon Pertwee-era "Doctor Who"
episodes. Does this mean Speedy could actually be the Ninth
Doctor? It would be no surprise - most skating fans have long
reckoned he's on a different planet.
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VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:
PortIce - http://www.geocities.com/portice
David House - http://www.tonyaharding.org
Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
Puppetboy - http://www.puppetland.com/mirrortony2.html
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
Pegasus Times - http://www.pegasustimes.com/harding/
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