“NOBODY’S PERFECT”: I realize none of you care, but I have spent the past five days watching every Christopher Bowman-related link on YouTube, so I have got to talk to someone about him. Internet to the rescue! Skip this post if you don’t care about skating.

What I find most striking is the fact that while he definitely earned his “Bowman the Showman” nickname, and would often interrupt more introspective programs to play to the judges or the audience, he’s as much an artist as an entertainer. His programs are often musical, sensitive, lyrical, and poignant. (The song “Maria” from West Side Story makes me want to punch puppies in the face, and yet he made a sublime, romantic purse from this saccharine sow’s ear.) He spends a lot of time on his knees on the ice; and where unmusical skaters often try to make flailing arms compensate for random footwork, Bowman’s feet and legs are usually where he really matches and carries the music. The replays here emphasize how lovely his jump exits often were, despite his struggles with the triple axel.

The more you watch him, the more you understand why Toller Cranston might have viewed him as a possible kindred soul–despite how horribly that particular coach/skater relationship crashed and burned. Bowman shares with Cranston his uniqueness, his angular positions, his musicality, and his straight-up weirdness. He was never the innovator Cranston was, but his style is unmistakable whether he’s “going for Camera Six!” or doing a heartbreaking, introverted program (yeah, I saw the finger-gun; see above re: I don’t care if he interrupts himself to be awesome).

In the great “Brian Orser or Brian Boitano?” debate, I’m pretty sure my answer will always be Bowman. I hope he’s at peace now.