10/20/04’s illustrious band:

Hell on Ice

Brought to you by my literary hero, James Lileks.

Uberblogger and cultural commentator James Lileks deconstructs the Ice Capades. You owe it to yourself to experience this.

I begged to be taken to the Ice Capades when I was a young'un. Begged. I'm not sure why, since I could barely skate myself. Maybe it was early evidence of my chronic fashion impairment. But I wanted to see the Ice Capades almost as much as I wanted a pony. And that was a lot.

Finally the show made its weary way to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, the cultural mecca of western South Dakota then as now. (I saw my first rock concerts there, including Huey Lewis & The News.) One or both of my lucky parents took me to see it sometime around 1975 or 1977. It was magic -- but that's about all I recall about the show itself. I got some of my first crushes on the dashing young skaters in their sparkly spandex. I slept with the program under my pillow for weeks and chanted their names as charms against the dark at the bottom of the stairs and daydreamed that they were my neighbors and we all had ponies.

Sashi Kuchiki and Perry Jewell are the names I remember. Kuchiki was still performing as recently as 1998 in a TV special titled Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's 'Mulan'. Jewell, it appears, performed at least once in 1989 and is listed on SkatingLessons.com as a professional figure skating instructor in California (no notes on when that was updated, though). A website called Skating Galleries Inc. offers "a fine collection of skating memorabilia," including Ice Capades programs listing both men's names. Looks like I could get a replacement pillow pal for about $25. But I don't think I will. I'm still saving up for that pony.

Today around the world: October 20 is the Birth of the B’ab to those of the Baha’i faith.

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