Going for gold (or giving gold to get gold)

Ok, I’m back again. Ended up having to take most of last week off from a writing standpoint due to a combination of work, the weather and my being a complete asshole and screwup in terms of my overall life. I wish I could blame the former but it was one of those weeks where I was an idiot and completely unable to do anything right so in those situations I am better off not trying to be funny online. Just wasn’t in the mood to try to be wacky and talk about Justin Bieber’s pot plane.

(Though I am confused as to how it could be less than nothing outside. I mean, even on Hoth temperature exists. In Chicago the temperature has now reached some mystical level in which it has now ventured to the other side of nothingness. It is enough to make a man turn to Kelvinism.)

I’ve started to follow the Olympics though I haven’t caught much of it so far. Sadly, these are probably going to be the start of a series of screw up world sporting events. The Sochi games are a complete mess, at least from a fan standpoint. There has been so much corruption and mismanagement that it doesn’t surprise me at all that the media hotels are a mess and there are wild dogs roaming the streets. Screw ups in the Opening Ceremony though are just standard Olympic operating procedure. In Vancouver we had the malfunctioning cauldron and Seoul had the famous “Release the doves of peace that land on what becomes the Olympic flame and thus becomes an impromptu barbecue.” But I hope that the games are safe and that the athletes have the chance to compete as they should. That said, this is the first time I’ve ever been unexcited for a Winter Olympics.

What is even worse is that we are following this with a World Cup in Brazil where we are unsure that the venues will be completed along with the slight possibility of riots. Rio then gets the Summer Olympics in 2016 and if they can’t put together a soccer tournament the thoughts of an Olympics should be frightening. Then it is back to Russia for the World Cup and then Qatar because if there is any place to hold a soccer tournament it is in the middle of the desert. Just expect that the major international sports stories for the next decade is how horrible the events are due to the corruption of the organizing committee.

Best of 120 Minutes: Old Material Issue song tonight. I enjoy the fact that Kim was a waitress when this song was first released.

The five random CDs for the week:

1)      Cowboy Mouth “Word of Mouth”

2)      Liz Phair “Whip Smart”

3)      Josh Ritter “So Runs the World Away”

4)      Jay Farrar “Thirdshiftgrottoslack”

5)      Star 69 “Eating February”