One man's journey into married life, middle age and responsibility after completing a long and perilous trek to capture his dreams. Along the way there will be stories of travel, culture and trying to figure out what to call those things on the end of shoelaces.
So I
was watching the finals of the Nordic Combined today and….ok, I really had no
reason to actually watch the finals of the Nordic Combined. This is what
happens when you work from home part of the time and it is after market close.
You end up watching whatever Olympic coverage happens to be on at the moment.
Anyway, while watching the thrilling cross country portion of the Nordic
Combined I got to see the brilliance of deciding to place the games in Sochi in
action. Now I can’t consider myself a cross country aficionado but I don’t
believe that courses should consist of about a twenty foot wide path of snow
that is surrounded by pure dirt. Seriously, the only part of the cross country
course that had snow on it was the course itself. I’ve never seen anything as
bizarre in my life and I was watching a sport that believes that ski jumping
and cross country skiing are related skills.
In
sad news that will get lost amidst the other headlines Maggie Estep died today
at only fifty years old. Most people will have never heard of Maggie Estep. To
be honest hers is a name I haven’t thought of for well over a decade. But, she
was part of the spoken word poetry scene back in that brief moment of time when
spoken word was a thing. They even had a special spoken word poetry addition of
MTV Unplugged which is completely insane in that a) MTV once dedicated an hour
of prime time to a poetry recital and b) somehow a poetry recital could be
considered unplugged.
Maggie
was a part of that broadcast and I just want to point out how cool that moment
in time was. I can’t sit here and talk about how influential her poetry was
because outside of a few other brief performances this was what I knew of her.
But the fact that she could make it on to MTV (along with the guy from King
Missle of all things) to just recite poetry and even appear on Beavis and
Butthead was a sign to me that there is more than one way to express yourself.
I’ve always been one to write and typically write for myself. I couldn’t get on
stage and sing or play guitar but I have some small skill in sitting down and
writing but that is a very solitary task. It is tough to connect with people
and even tougher to get feedback. I mainly write for myself but occasionally it
is nice to have an audience.
The
spoken word scene also proved to me that you don’t have to write in the
traditional way. I know it is almost inconceivable now but when I was a
teenager my dreams of seeing my words in print or available anywhere would
involve either getting a book deal or a magazine assignment or if I was going
to be incredibly daring, just publishing my own zine. I knew people who made
their own zines. I had no idea how they did it. Incredibly though a decade ago
I just set up a blog and started writing and ended up with readers all over the
world. I’m bummed that the blog took a multi-year sabbatical and lost its
steady readership but it will come back. I’m just happy to have an outlet.
So
tonight in between Olympic coverage and rightful eulogies to Sid Caesar
remember Maggie and her brief moment in the pop culture spotlight. She was able
to stand on a stage and read her poems to a national audience. How amazing is
that.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Still continuing with albums that
were released in the last year or so. Here is one from Josh Ritter’s release
from last year. For an album that came out of the aftermath of his divorce this
is a rather upbeat song. Plus, it is Josh and his songs are the closest thing
to poetry that you can find out there.
Time
for our first set of Olympic updates from the “Winter Games in the beachside
resort that is 60 degrees, overrun with wild dogs and will feature Putin
winning at least three gold medals before all is said and done.” Due to my
realization that blogger is being a bit persnickety with numbered lists I am
now going to be discussing things as points.
Point One: If the Winter Olympics mean one
thing it is non-stop curling coverage. Yes, the sport of kings and Canadian
beer leagues is back where once every four years we all sit mesmerized by
people sliding stones across the ice. I truly mean mesmerized. Four years ago
during the Vancouver games I was working on a trading floor where we had
televisions scattered around the floor tuned to CNN, CNBC and Olympic coverage.
The curling competition gathered the most interest. You haven’t lived until you’ve
been surrounded by twenty people screaming at a forty year old man for not
properly placing the hammer past the guard stones and into the house.
Point Two: The Americans suck this year at
curling. The women gave up a record seven points in one end to Great Britain.
To put this in perspective, the most points that it is possible to score in one
end is eight. To put it another way, if you grabbed four people off the street,
didn’t tell them the rules and had them play that end, they could only do one
point worse than the best America has to offer. As someone tweeted today about
American curling, “Come on Minnesota, you only have one job.”
Point Three: I also enjoy the fact that in my
lifetime of watching the Winter Games, which goes back to watching Eric Heiden
and the Miracle on Ice as a six year old, I’ve been able to see numerous sports
added for the sole purpose of allowing the Americans to win more medals. We’ve
added snowboarding and moguls and something called slopestyle that seems to
involve icing over a skate park. These are wonderful events where it is
absolutely impossible to figure out who is better. In speedskating it is
relatively easy: this person in a bizarrely colored skintight suit skated
faster than the other person in a more restrained skintight suit. Most of the
new events involve the viewer thinking “Wow, that guy spun around a bunch of
times just like the previous twenty guys.” As long as they don’t go splat they
all seem to have a chance to medal.
Point Four: We do also get Olympic hockey, which is some
of the most amazing action in the world. It’s like multiple NHL All Star games
except that people actually care and you get to play off all of your long
standing nationalistic hatreds. As someone who is Czech by nature I get to
cheer on Jaromir Jagr as he takes on the evil Russians and Germans and Slovaks
and those god damn Swedes. I freaking hate Sweden with their blonde hair and
healthy environment and well planned national health care system. Screw them.
Point Five: Yes, it is important to point
out that Jaromir Jagr, much like Abe Vigoda, is still alive. To be honest they
may in fact be the same person.
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.
3:03 P.M.: And we are coming to you live from Battling the Current Sports Headquarters as we are providing live coverage of the Gold Medal Game between the United States and Canada. It is Bacon vs. Canadian Bacon, Rush vs. REO Speedwagon, the Metric System vs. the real way to measure things. In short, the planet’s two greatest rivals compete in the ultimate showdown.
3:06 P.M.: Same rules as always for the live blog. I’ll sit around and watch the game making snide comments all the while. I will also try to make vague sexual innuendos using terms such as five hole, line shift, and two line pass.
3:07 P.M.: I think that Don Cherry just broke my HD set. For those who don’t understand who that he the official statement is that he is a Canadian icon that no one else can quite comprehend. Imagine John Madden crossed with RuPaul.
3:11 P.M.: For the record, this game will have nothing in common with the Miracle on Ice game. That was a bunch of college kids going up against professionals during the time in which the threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike was so strong that even as a six year old I was fairly confident that I was not going to see my twenty first birthday. This is a matchup of two sets of professionals, many of whom play for the same team. It is a slight difference.
3:20 P.M.: And we drop the puck. You know what would be awesome? If the puck glowed. It would be much easier to follow. And it could have a streak like a comet’s tail behind it on a slapshot. I can’t believe that no one has thought about that before.
3:22 P.M.: Yes, we know that Ryan Miller went to Michigan State. Seriously, it is not that much of an accomplishment. Better than Arizona State, not as impressive as Minnesota State (because any school that hires Dauber is good enough for me.)
3:28 P.M.: Seven minutes in and no score. Americans are playing well so far with the puck being mainly on the Canadian end. Beatles and Rolling Stones songs seem to be the soundtrack of choice in Vancouver this afternoon.
3:32 P.M.: Chris Drury is one of the few people on the planet whose life I envy. Olympic medalist, Stanley Cup Champion, and, oh, he just happened to be the winning pitcher in the Little League World Series as a kid. If he had the Millennium Falcon playset as a kid he may have the most perfect life ever imagined by man.
3:37 P.M.: Jack Johnson apparently plays for the Americans. Kind of surprising. He always seemed more like a laid back surfer type to me rather than a hard hitting defenseman.
3:40 P.M.: Crap, the Canadians just scored. At least it was scored by a Blackhawk so I am not entirely upset. Though why they just broke into a soccer chant in the Olympics hockey final is beyond me. This marks the first time that the Americans have trailed all tournament.
3:43 P.M.: No way that was a penalty ref! Why don’t you just go have another doughnut. And some Tim Horton’s coffee given you’re obviously a Canadian referee.
3:51 P.M.: “The probing has continued.” Now that is a line that I typically do not here during sports commentary.
3:52 P.M.: It is rather amazing watching hockey without commercial breaks. There is so much more flow to the game than you usually see. True, I have no idea what beer to drink now because I have not been constantly reminded of the proper beverage to pursue in order to appear attractive to the opposite sex but the hockey has been better.
3:53 P.M.: And that is the first period with the Canucks leading 1 – 0. Time for the Zamboni.
3:54 P.M.: Can I just say that I have to thank eTrade for introducing the words “shankopotamous” and “milkaholic” to my every day vocabulary. Yes, talking babies are the lowest level of marketing but at least they have given them interesting things to say.
4:07 P.M.: The ice is clean, the zambonis have returned to their pens and the teams are going in the other directions. Let’s get this party started! (Note: said party may not actually exist not does its start depend on an official pronouncement.)
4:08 P.M.: It is a little difficult to get a chant going of Can – A – Da. It just doesn’t sound right. Not because the Canadians can not be patriotic. More like it is very hard to have a real powerful chant when the last thing you say is “Duh.”
4:11 P.M.: Ok, that was high sticking on the Americans. But if you can’t take being hit in the head with a stick you probably shouldn’t be playing hockey. Should have been a no call.
4:14 P.M.: Awesome! We get a make up call. Power play for the Americans due to an interference call. Don’t know what causes an interference penalty but I am certain that the Canadians did it.
4:17 P.M.: Have to admit that that was a sweet little goal by Canada there. Loose puck bounces to the front of the net and a quick shot makes it 2 – 0. Not the start I was hoping for as the Americans will really need to pull out the stops from here on out.
4:27 P.M.: Finally we have some action. Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane scores on the deflection to make it 2 – 1. It’s been a pretty good game so far which is why I haven’t been writing as much. I’m too interested in watching the game and play by play would basically consist of me writing “They’re all skating one way….Now they’re all skating the other way.”
4:34 P.M.: It is now tradition for goalies to have the most incredible masks imaginable. Ryan Miller has an American Eagle and Uncle Sam on his both of which look like they have really bad attitudes. The Canadian goalie has images of maple syrup and Celine Dion on his. Pretty much even there.
4:43 P.M.: We’re through two periods. Time to figure out who is the Great One and who is Marty McSorely.
5:11 P.M.: Ten minutes left now. Yes, I know that I missed ten minutes there but I believe that it was due to being abducted by aliens. On the plus side, the probing is no longer continuing.
5:16 P.M.: Five minutes left and the Americans are starting to press. This one is going to go down to the last minute. Luckily, we still have Mike Euruzione on the bench as well as Emilio Estevez as the coach so I am perfectly confident in our chances. Especially when we pull off the behind the net spin move.
5:25 P.M.: Down to the last minute. Americans have pulled the goalie and it is a fight to the death for the gold medal. And the Americans score to tie it up!!!! Using the extra skater almost never works but for once it comes into play. And we are going to overtime. Sudden death, loser leaves town, no holds barred, one fall to a finish. Time to get pumped up.
5:36 P.M.: For those who aren’t hockey fans this is the epitome of what makes the sport amazing. Overtime in a big game. You drop the puck and first one to score gets the gold medal. There is nothing else quite like it in sports. Sure football has sudden death overtime but only hockey has the sense that in fifteen seconds either team could win the game.
5:48 P.M.: Into overtime now. Interesting that the rules make it 4 on 4, which is slightly odd. It would be like, well, reducing the size of a team by one player in any other sport.
5:50 P.M.: Five minutes into overtime. Some big saves by Miller so far. May I be the first to say that it is Miller Time?
5:53 P.M.: Ooh, good chance by the Americans there on a steal…but then Crosby scores to give the Canadians a win. Damnit. Oh well, I’d rather have a player that I like score the winning goal than someone else. Great game.
5:54 P.M.: And that is going to be it for the Olympics. I’ll call these games a bit of a mixed bag. They got started off on such a horrible note with the death of the luger and an awkward opening ceremonies. I really enjoyed the first week of the games and was totally into it but I kind of fell out of things as the games progressed. Part of it is the fact that a lot of the events that I enjoy (downhill skiing, luge, speed skating) were all in the first week. Part of it was that the Americans did better at the beginning than at the end. But mainly it was the fact that the coverage by NBC was so horrible that I could not bring myself to watch it the second week. I just couldn’t bring myself to watch sports where I already knew who won.
I’ll miss curling, still the best sport on the planet, and the joy of biathlon. I’ll miss checking the TV schedule daily to see what cool events were on tap for today. I’ll miss the joy of watching top level competition. The Olympics are always a two week break from the world of sports and reality. Two weeks where there are no teams: just individuals and countries. All sports are equal. The top figure skater gets the same medal as the top cross country skier. It is by no means a perfect event or organization but it is what we want sports to be. See you in London in 2012.
The five random CDs for the week: 1) Dave Matthews Band “Remember Two Things” 2) Tori Amos “From the Choirgirl Hotel” 3) Cathy Richardson “Fools on a Tandem” 4) Veruca Salt “Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt” 5) Various Artists “Down From the Mountain”
USA! USA! USA! We beat the Canadians on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice (or near it, I’m trusting Wikipedia for this information.) It’s nice to see us perform well in sports that were always Olympic sports as opposed to the ones that were created for Americans to win. Think about all of the sports that are in the games now that weren’t fifteen or twenty years ago. All of the snowboard events, the freestyle skiing, skeleton, short track speed skating, those are all new additions to the games. Makes you wonder just how Jim McKay filled the broadcast when a day may have consisted entirely of biathlon. Incredibly that coverage was a thousand times better than what we have now.
It’s been a rather quiet weekend for me. Sometimes there are weekends when you just want to take on the world and spend every possible moment maxing out your excitement meter. Other weekends all you want to do is fall asleep on your couch while waiting for your dryer to finish its latest batch of laundry. This was one of those weekends. I did laundry and cleaned and ran a few errands but for the most part my main accomplishment was repeatedly falling asleep on my couch during the afternoon. I guess that shows how sleep deprived I’ve been recently. I know that napping isn’t entirely the best thing for me but when my body yells stop I try to listen to it. That and my couch is really, really comfy.
Also, it warmed up enough that some of the snow has melted and I can actually see grass again. Haven’t seen that around here for a couple of weeks. I’ll be happy when winter ends and we get out of this snow cycle. I like snow, I really do, but at this time of year I tend to just get tired of winter and reach a point where all I want to do is go outside and be in the sun for a little while and not worry about if my ice scraper is going to last another storm.
I guess I will add in my thoughts on the whole Tiger Woods apology. Personally I was hoping for him to either a) deny everything and say that he has never cheated on his wife or b) fully own up to everything with what could only be described as a sense of arrogant pride. Not that I think that either of those choices would be the wisest; I just think that they would have been really, really funny. Instead we get a press conference that wasn’t a press conference in that there were no press there and no one could ask any questions. We had Tiger read a scripted statement, awkwardly hug his mom and that was it.
I’ll at least say that I feel that Tiger is sincere in his apology. He knows that he was wrong and hates what he has put Elin and his family through. In fact, the only times he became emotional was when he was talking about them: either in terms of the press hounding them or the allegations of spousal abuse. As for his own actions, and the overall reaction to them, he was calmly detached. Again, not that he doesn’t feel remorse but I think he truly views himself as two different personas. There is the private person who screwed up relationships and then there is Tiger Inc. the golfing and marketing machine. He wants the public to see Tiger Inc. and only Tiger Inc. while completely ignoring his private life.
The problem is he is too big of a celebrity for that. You can’t be a billion dollar brand and not have your personal actions be put on display. I understand his plea for privacy and his desire to put this behind him but it will not happen. It is too much of a story, too much of a mark on his personal brand, for that to happen.
The five random CDs for the week: 1) Kelly Hogan “Because It Feel Good” 2) Paul Burch “Fool for Love” 3) Cat Power “The Covers Record” 4) Charlie Parker “Charlie Parker Plays Standards” 5) Kelly Willis “Well Traveled Love”
I want to start out with a request. If you have a chance please read the article on Roger Ebert in this month’s Esquire. You don’t even need to pick up the magazine as it is available on their website. It is a fascinating; touching and thought provoking article on Ebert as he faces what he knows is his end. Due to cancer and various surgeries he can no longer eat or talk but he is still living life. As long as he can write, as long as he can still express himself and as long as there are still movies to watch he continues to live life as much as he can under the most trying circumstances imaginable. Read the profile. It is something that you will never forget.
Ok, time for my list of all the things that I hate about NBCs Olympic coverage.
Point # 1: None of the events are live except for hockey, curling, and for some bizarre reason, cross country skiing. The women’s downhill was yesterday and it is one of the marquee events featuring an American athlete who is best in the world but battling an injury. This is one of those classic, much watch moments. Or it would be except that I read the results online four hours before NBC broadcasted them (seven hours delayed on the west coast.) Nowhere could you watch the event live. Sports are meant to be watched live and with the Games in Canada there is no excuse not to show everything live on one network or another.
Point # 2: Even what they show on tape is bad: Here is what we ended up seeing of the women’s downhill. The three medalists runs, the eighth place finisher, another American with a decent finish, and several people who crashed. That is it. What little drama was left after knowing the result was taken away by showing such a select few runs that each run was anti climatic. It was the worst broadcast of a sporting event that I can imagine.
Point # 3: For crying out loud I don’t give a damn about what Cris Collinsworth thinks about anything other than football and why his name is missing an H.
Point # 4: There are other countries: Now I am fully behind using the Olympics as a way to have jingoistic fervor. It is pretty much the entire point and I love having a socially acceptable moment in time where I can discuss my hatred towards the Swiss. But part of the fun of the Olympics is watching athletes from small countries that you barely know about just kicking all kinds of ass. Or even just watching Australian speed skaters dressed in their Tron outfits. Heck, just the concept of an Australian speed skater is enough to get my interest. NBC completely ignored it because of an American in the race.
Point # 5: NBC broadcasts the Olympics for people who don’t like sports: At the end of the day this is the heart of their coverage. Years ago marketers realized that people who watch the Olympics aren’t your typical sports fan. They are older and female and more interested in stories than competition. As a result, NBC tailored their coverage to this demographic who really doesn’t care that they know the result already. They mainly want to hear the uplifting human interest story behind it. On one level, that is fine and a decent marketing strategy.
On the other hand, it is completely wrong because the true base of the Olympics are sports fans. It may skew more in the non-traditional fan direction but the sports fans are still the core audience and we can’t stand this type of coverage. Despite the fact that I am someone who follows winter sports in non Olympic years I can’t find coverage of the events themselves anywhere. I just want to watch people skiing down a mountain, or skiing and shooting at things, or throwing large stones across ice. I want to see the competition and the drama of not knowing who will win. That was the thrill over the weekend with the moguls being shown live. Sadly, that thrill has been absent for the rest of the coverage.
We lost to Japan in Women’s Curling. I can now say that I am no longer proud to be an American even if I still know that I am free. Seriously, had a 6 – 4 lead after the sixth end and just completely lost it. An embarrassment to the entire US curling community. And don’t even get me started on the men’s game against the Germans.
(My favorite part of the Olympics: getting to follow obscure sports and having the once in every two years opportunity of letting my hatred for certain small European countries show. Go to hell, Latvia. Go to hell. Except for the one Latvian reader I picked up over the past few months. Your cool.)
Also, your Olympic fun fact for the day is that one of the curlers for Canada is five and a half months pregnant. You’ve got to love any sport that you can compete in while with child.
Otherwise things are rather quiet here so I will make this a quick post. Got a little more snow, which resulted in people having absolutely no idea how to drive. Amazing that with almost two feet of snow on the ground a further dusting resulted in everyone going ten miles an hour. It is rather mind boggling. Now I understand that I am more comfortable driving in snow than most people but this was rather ridiculous. I’ll admit that making turns when faced with a four foot snowbank is pretty daunting but driving straight should not be that difficult. Maybe that is just what I get for living in Delaware.
Two other things that shocked and or annoyed me in the past few days. I have been behind people at Dunkin Donuts and the post office who seem to be so oblivious that I don’t know how they reached either location. At Dunkin I was forced to wait while someone dealt with the fact that they must make a choice of whether to have sausage, bacon or ham on their breakfast sandwich. First off, it’s an easy choice to go with bacon but I think the big problem was the entire idea of a choice. Given that I was desperately needing coffee at the time this was not a wait I desired. The post office had me behind someone who could not figure out how to count out $1.39 to pay their bill. Took them five minutes until they finally handed over a five. And just remember, their vote counts the same as mine.
1) Like everyone else I must comment on the Georgian luger tragedy. Now I must state that I am someone with a pretty decent knowledge of luge. I watch it every Olympics and have even stopped and watched when I came across it in non-Olympic years. Can’t call myself an expert or anything but any event that I played in the Epyx Winter Games is one that holds a special place in my heart. Here is what I feel on it. A) I have never seen a slider launched from the track like that. I’ve never seen anyone even leave the track. B) That said, the logic of having exposed steel poles just feet from a track where people are going 90+ mph has to be questioned. C) I could have done without every network showing the full footage, including the guy hitting the post and dying instantly, over and over again. D) In the end, the track was too fast and the racer too inexperienced. Inexperience shouldn’t result in death though.
2) Obviously that put a damper on the Opening Ceremonies. For the most part I found them to be rather good, though the Devil Went Down to Georgia musical number seemed very out of place. Also, as much as I love k.d. lang singing Halleiluia (and I’ve seen her perform it in concert and it just sends chills down your spine) it is a very strange song to hear in a sporting contest. It is about relationships and breakups and doesn’t really fit in. Finally, the cauldron screw up has to be one of the most awkward endings since the Seoul Olympics where the doves that were released to symbolize peace went and sat in the cauldron and stayed there even when it was lit. (I’m not making this up.)
3) I have no idea how moguls skiers have any knees at all. You watch them through the middle section and you just feel like wincing as their ACLs are torn to shreds. Still, I wish there was an easier way to understand the scoring. The speed portion is easy. The style points for turns and aerials are an absolute mystery. This is one of those things about some events that drive me batty. Even ski jumping has style points and that event should simply be see who jumps the farthest.
4) I ended up watching cross country skiing this afternoon, which I have to admit is not the most exciting event in the world. The only fun part is that it is tradition that ever skier collapses when they cross the finish line. No other sport has this. Marathoners take a victory lap after they finish. Skiers collapse into a heap.
5) I’m already sick of NBCs coverage. First of all, they have been rather harsh on the athletes with no medal chances (I think they called one one of the worst in the world.) Then, even though the Olympic events are essentially taking place in LA from a time zone perspective I still can’t watch them live and find out who won hours before I can see it. Drives me insane.
The five random CDs for the week: 1) Bruce Robison “Bruce Robison” 2) The Tragically Hip “Phantom Power” 3) Waco Brothers “Cowboy in Flames” 4) Various Artists “Exposed Roots: The Best of Alt Country” 5) Emmylou Harris “Stumble Into Grace”
As I predicted, Rio won the rights to the 2016 Olympics. The people of Rio celebrated like it was…well…a typical Friday in Rio. I just assume that city is just like Disney World where there are parades every evening except that the magical light parade is replaced by one with half naked people. Oh, and there is just slightly more rampant crime and poverty than there is in Orlando. Not by much, though.
There are a lot of people looking to point blame in the fact that Chicago lost and lost big in their bid. They were eliminated in the first round after most people viewed them as the favorites. In essence, I’ll say that the Chicago bid showed a lack of cohesion with events being held in Wisconsin, a need for too many sites to be constructed and the fact that half of the city wasn’t behind the games probably killed the bid. Interestingly though, I think there was a bigger reason why Rio got the games.
I think that the Olympic committee really wanted to have a latin flavored games. Madrid and Rio were the top vote getters in every round. There hasn’t been an Olympics in a Spanish speaking country since Barcelona in 1992 and Mexico City in 1968 before that. Given the huge portion of the world that is Spanish speaking and how they have not been a focus of the Olympic marketing effort in the past I think that is one of the reasons that they were selected. Add in the fact that Rio is the same time zone as New York and you understand some other benefits.
Or maybe it was just the way that she dances on the sand.
Anyway, it is late as my flight got in early but traffic killed me in trying to get home. I’ll have some comments on football tomorrow as we all have to endure Favre-a-palooza.
The five random CDs for the week: 1) Ryan Adams “Demolition” 2) Cowboy Mouth “Are You With Me?” 3) Aimee Mann “The Forgotten Arm” 4) Liz Phair “Whitechocolatespaceegg” 5) The Freddy Jones Band “Waiting for the Night”
They announce the host of the 2016 Olympics tomorrow and that is obviously a subject of interest given the strong possibility that Chicago might win the rights. I’m kind of torn as to how I feel about it so I might as well write up my thoughts and then tomorrow we can figure out if I am right or wrong.
(For those wondering, the 2010 games are in Vancouver, 2012 is in London and 2014 is in some two bit Russian town whose name I can’t recall offhand.)
As a sports fan and Olympics buff I would of course be thrilled to have the Olympics in my hometown. It would truly be a once in a lifetime moment and something absolutely spectacular. To have the eyes of the world on our skyline would be absolutely amazing. I know that I would make my way back to the city for at least part of the games and just soak up the amazing atmosphere. It would give the city some additional prestige and maybe cement the city as one of the greatest places in the world.
However, I have a hard time buying the idea just based on the fact that it would be really cool to have them. For one thing, the Olympics don’t mean nearly as much as they used to. Given infinite cable channels and year round sports seasons and the end of the cold war the Olympics just don’t carry as much weight as they used to. Before they were the only time every four years you would even be able to watch something like gymnastics. Now the meets are shown every other week. Plus, the thrill of the US versus the Soviets are gone and now the focus is on pro athletes who may or may not be on drugs. That innocent thrill of the Jim McKay era is gone.
I also don’t know if the Olympics really bring that much in terms of long term benefit to a city. True, tourism spikes during the games and maybe a little afterwards but are you planning a trip to Beijing or Torino at the moment? Yes, Barcelona made a name for itself but Atlanta pretty much ruined its rep. The best Olympics in recent memory was the Sydney games, which made me want to visit a city that I already wanted to visit. So there is that to consider.
Finally, there is the financial aspect. Basically, cities always lose money on the Olympics. You have to build aquatic centers and cycling tracks and a place for fencing competitions that will never be used again. It is really the curse of the games. Remember that awesome stadium in Beijing that was used for the ceremonies and track and field? It is sitting empty right now and costing the country a ton of money in the process. No matter what they say the games will go over budget and lose money, especially factoring in the typical Chicago corruption. I’m no longer a taxpayer there so I guess this shouldn’t worry me as much but on the whole it is still a big issue.
In the end that is what we are weighing. It would be super cool to have them but it really wouldn’t mean that much and we’d lose money on the deal. If Chicago doesn’t get them Rio will. I don’t know why but I really have a feeling that Rio will get the games just so they can finally be held in South America. Maybe it would be a blessing in disguise for the city if that happened.
Just a couple final Olympic comments based mainly on what I watched of the closing ceremonies...
I was completely unaware that the double decker buses in London were actually Transformers. This is quite disconcerting. Presumably they are Autobots but the entire sentient public transport system gives me the willies.
Jimmy Page looks surprisingly like Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees at the moment. But I guess we should be happy that Jimmy Page can still play guitar.
I'm still trying to figure out the whole modern dance London section, which seemed really inclusive by involving people in wheelchairs. That became much less inclusive when you saw that the people in wheelchairs were then dancing on the bus.
I often wonder what do a billion chinese do every day. Apparently they spend all of their time preparing quite challenging human pyramid designs. Seriously, that was quite impressive even if I didn't quite understand what it was all supposed to mean.
The U.S. wins the total medal cout while the Chinese won the gold medal count for those wondering. Why the change? China has focused on sports with large numbers of individual medals while the U.S. has always been more team sport focused. We are proud to win one basketball gold medal versus four gold medals in table tennis or badmitton. Still, medal counts are a keepsake from the cold war where political ideals are debated by determining who is best at rowing a boat.
Congrats to India for winning their first gold medal ever this year. Over a billion people, twenty percent of the world's population, and they only now get a gold medal. That astounds me just in terms of percentages. Statistically speaking, they have to have at least one decent athlete in the country.
I'm still really pulling for Chicago to win the 2016 games. I would go nuts for that. Sure it would make traffic horrible for weeks and we would build a swimming venue that would never be used again but I jus think it is amazing to have your city to be the center of the world for a few weeks. Plus, we would rock out the ceremonies. Styx would have to reunite just so we could show who we really are.
Coming up this week. Convention coverage! In depth analysis of planks and platforms! What will the great state of New Hampshire say as they try to justify their state's existence! So much fun.
On my post from last night, if you have any suggestions you better make them fast because I finally have a start date and, yeah, they want me a little quicker than I expected. Actually, it was the date I originally thought about but that was based on me not spending two weeks in bureaucratic limbo. So if you see me running around like a madman over the next few days I hope you’ll understand why. I’ll explain things further once I understand them further.
Olympic note # 1: Having the championship of the beach volleyball tournament being converted into a mud volleyball game is a move of genius. It still doesn’t equal my belief that all gold medal wrestling matches should take place inside a steel cage but it comes close.
Olympic note # 2: Has anyone noticed over the course of the Olympics how everyone: announcers, reporters, commercials has been pulling for Shawn Johnson and being rather upset that Natasia Lukin kept on winning. Now sure part of that is because Johnson was the defending world champion and the favorite going in. But let’s look at the difference between the two.
Shawn Johnson is the sparkplug with a nice smile from Des Moines. She fits that Mary Lou Retton role of being short and feisty while still being an all-american girl. You could see her selling any product, sitting on the couch with Letterman or Leno, and just being the face of the sport.
Natasia Lukin is stoic, nearly robotic and was born in Moscow with a father who was a gold medalist for the Soviet Union. While she is unbelievably graceful there is still this sense of grim determination to her performance. This is someone who is visibly upset about finishing second. While we don’t really celebrate silver we still want people to be happy about the end result.
Basically, since Shawn Johnson makes a better story they went into the balance beam with the story being “Shawn Johnson’s last chance at gold” rather than “Natasia Lukin goes to cement herself as the greatest American Olympic gymnast ever.” It was subtle but it was clearly there. NBC was hoping like mad that Shawn Johnson would win last night.
Olympic note # 3: While I was playing trivia at the time, the whole Champions Gala event for gymnastics is one of my least favorite things about the Olympics. We take time from the games to show performances that do not count for anything. It’s just an exhibition. I know it is the most popular sport but instead of showing lesser events all we do is show the same thing except now it isn’t even a competition.
Olympic note # 4: Best trivia question I saw all day. How many times in history has a white man run under 10 seconds in the 100 meters? Answer: 0, best time is 10 seconds flat by a dude from Poland is 1968. That just seemed to be a rather amazing stat when I saw it.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Ok, here is a tape of what is essentially my favorite KC concert moment ever (even though this actual clip is from a show in San Francisco). I was at Liberty Hall in Lawrence to see Rufus Wainwright and for the encore the entire band took the stage dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West. Crowd goes nuts and Rufus is a few lines into the opening verse and goes “Oh my God, we’re in Kansas!” Just a really fun moment and the clip shows what it looked like.
I’m going to change things up tonight. Instead of my typical post in which I discuss the Olympics I am going to discuss why we are all discussing the Olympics. This isn’t an insignificant point. On three straight nights I was in a bar last week in which people were crowded around a television set cheering people swimming. That is unusual enough to warrant some deep analysis.
First off, NBC bet the farm on this being the Michael Phelps show and it paid off. They made it so that the swimming finals would be live in the States and fed us the story about how important it is and people bought into the story. Early on you had the come from behind win on the relay that really caught people’s attention. Then you had the dominance in the middle which allowed people to think of 8 golds as a possibility. Tag on a miracle win and the last race was something you just had to see. It is an amazing accomplishment, especially given the talent level in swimming. I won’t call it the greatest athletic accomplishment ever but it was definitely noteworthy.
But given the high ratings for the opening ceremonies there is something beyond Michael Phelps at play here. One idea that I have read states that the interest in the Olympics is due to a really crappy television season. Thanks to the writer’s strike we’ve been dealing with reality show overload and even that month and a half when the real shows were back they weren’t firing on all cylinders. The Olympics have been the biggest television event in probably nine months just due to the fact that it is new programming.
There is also a level of patriotism at play here. With the games in China part of the reason you watch is because China is such a strange place. You don’t quite understand what is going on over there but you know that it is important. There is also a degree of cheering for the U.S. over China that I haven’t seen since the glory days of the Cold War Olympics. Look at gymnastics, which has been sold as a U.S. versus China battle. Or the focus on the medal count, which is playing a bigger role than in the past. This is very interesting to see given that I felt that we had moved into a post-patriotism age.
I’m still not sure if this explains all of it. I’ve been trying to think of an Olympics that has garnered as much attention as this one. The only two that I can think of are 1994 (Tonya and Nancy) and 1984 (the L.A. games where the US won every medal and we all got to eat for free at McDonald’s for a month as a result). So what has caught our attention this time? Why the hell are we caring about rowing results? Since when has water polo become part of the national interest?
Honestly I just think the nation is collectively burnt out and we need a two week break from reality. The economy is horrible, the housing market has collapsed and the dollar is incredibly weak. We have more troops in combat than we had ever imagined possible and we can’t see where the end point is. There are three months of political ads in front of us after a primary race that would not end. We all just want to have one big collective sigh.
That is what the Olympics are for the US at the moment. We are all collapsing on the couch and watching our countrymen win and set records and perform amazing feats. We’ve forgotten that such a thing is possible. The past few years have been so dark and cynical that we can’t imagine us winning again. For a moment we are all smiling again. That is what makes sports so important in the world. It is one of the few unifying aspects of life.
Olympic Commercial Comment #1: So Home Depot is the primary employer of our U.S. Olympic team. Does that make anyone else feel slightly depressed? That you spend your life focused on some specific skill like rowing or trap shooting and all that leaves you qualified to do is sell paint. At least it would make sense if the champion weightlifter works in the lumber department. He can carry the heavy stuff quite easily as part of his training.
Olympic Commercial Comment #2: I don’t know which is worse, the number of times I am watching the ad for McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich or the number of times I have ordered it in the past week. How watching athletic people compete results in my making the worst health choice imaginable is beyond me.
Cruel Thought of the Night: (Following Alicia Sacramone’s repeated falls) Announcer: “What do you to say to someone in this situation?” EC: “Thanks for costing us the gold medal would be a good start.”
Actually that is what is so insane about women’s gymnastics. You spend your entire life training for this event. You complete ruin your body, postpone puberty and have no life outside of gymnastics. After all that effort you finally have your chance on the biggest stage of all. And then you try to land on a balance beam and fall and you have assholes like me on the couch laughing at you. There is something wrong with that picture.
Gender Equality Thought of the Night: So in women’s beach volleyball you wear swimsuits that show off every inch of your body. In men’s beach volleyball you wear shorts that go down to your knees. Can someone explain the reasoning behind this? Not that I am complaining, I would just like to know the reasoning behind it.
Sport That Really Needs the Involvement of Professionals: Wrestling, obviously. I want the Iron Sheik coming out of retirement to represent Iran. Let’s have numerous men in masks representing Mexico and Japan. At least three men wearing facing paint representing Parts Unknown. I want the gold medal match to take place inside a steel cage. This would so kick badmitton’s ass.
Some thoughts from the opening weekend of the Olympics…
1) I was in a bar during much of the Opening Ceremonies so I missed much of the pageantry and spectacle. I am intrigued as to what the purpose of the giant Q*bert board was. Without sound it really did seem like one of those grand communist spectacles, which is kind of expected. Huge numbers of people doing everything in unison. All that was missing was the group calisthenics. 2) Congrats to a Domer for winning the first gold for the U.S. in fencing in Women’s Sabre. The U.S. swept behind students from Notre Dame, Yale and Duke, which kind of tells you the type of people who fence in this world. They are also going to be competing in the team event, which I really hope consists of two teams of three simultaneously swinging swords at each other. You know, with competitors jumping on top of tables and leaping on to tapestries and fighting up the stairways of the arena. That would be awesome. 3) If you haven’t watched fencing yet you really should if just for the helmets. We have now added bullet proof glass to the classic mesh and added in yellow and red LED lights to show scoring. It looks vaguely like what I wear when I play laser tag. 4) Things that intrigue me about beach volleyball (besides the obvious). A) The fact that they had to create a beach in Beijing. B) The importation of an American announcer and pop music. C) The rather incongruous cheerleaders being brought out onto the court during changeovers (which I don’t believe Pierre Du Coubertain imagined back in 1896), D) The fact that places like Latvia, which I do not believe have beaches, are able to field teams. 5) What I learned by watching parts of the cycling road race. A) The smog in Beijing is just killer. Everything just looks gray and depressing as if breathing would be a complete challenge. B) Beijing has a 7 Star hotel with a massive Jumbotron taking up several floors in the middle of it. Why either of those are needed is a bit of a mystery to me. 6) If I am going to be forced to watch hours of gymnastics I request that all falls be accompanied by humorous sound effects. Up to and including the theme to the Benny Hill Show and the sound the mountain climber makes when he falls off the cliff on The Price is Right.
Best of 120 Minutes: I can’t say that I am a fan of the band Bush. In fact, I pretty actively dislike them. There is nothing about this song that I particularly enjoy either. However, Julie Delpy plays a significant role in the video and that is all I need to know.
I am very concerned by this development of Brett Farve, the former quarterback of the fabled Cobra Kai fantasy team, being traded to the New York Jets. Doesn’t he know that once a Jet a Jet he shall stay from his first cigarette to his last dying day? If Broadway musicals have taught us anything it is that becoming a Jet in New York will only end in tragedy that will be replayed endlessly by drama kids in high school gyms. Also, I learned that trains can sing. Thanks Andrew Lloyd Webber. How high were you when you came up with that one?
Oh and I spoke too soon about Big Brother. My local CBS affiliate, whose offices will be picketed tomorrow due to their actions in recent days, decided that the Chiefs pre-season game was more important than the live eviction on Big Brother. Now they were playing the Bears so I give them a little leeway but it is a preseason game. It doesn’t count, it doesn’t matter and the Chiefs barely count as a professional team. Surely they could have just done score updates and left us with watching whether Jessie or Memphis was eliminated? Is that too much to ask for in this world?
The Olympics start tomorrow so that is always a reason for great joy in my part of the world. This is one of the few times of the year where I can unleash my intense and irrational hatred of certain countries and be considered completely within my rights for doing so. Not as fun as the Winter Olympics, during which I constantly spew my hatred regarding those damn Latvians. Seriously, who the hell elects Victor Von Doom to be their president?
First off, expect to see the standard puff pieces that show just how advanced the United States is compared to the rest of the world. You’ll get swimming events where we discuss how the American’s parents installed an Olympic size pool in their backyard while the guy in the next lane is from a nation where 98% of the residents do not have access to clean water. If that doesn’t make you proud to be an American (where at least I know I’m free) I don’t know what will.
I’m contemplating live blogging the opening ceremonies tomorrow except that I won’t be watching it live. Well, no one will since it will be in China but I’m going to be taping it anyway. I always find the opening ceremonies to be interesting just for the whole spectacle of it. Also, the fact that multiple hours of network television can be taken up by showing people walking is a pretty amazing thing. But I dig the spectacle and I’ve watched every ceremony since 1984 so I should keep up with the tradition.
This is going to be an interesting games. Every summer Olympics tends to be mismanaged and confusing due to the sheer size of the thing but this one has the possibility of being an absolute nightmare. We have the Chinese trying to control the weather and the smog, which will either fail miserably causing the athletes to suffer or work and scare us all due to the fact that the Chinese can now control the weather. There also just aren’t as many great stories out there. With all the doping scandals track and field doesn’t have the same buzz as before, both Hamm brothers are out of the gymnastics competition though they will appear in the next season of Ninja Warrior, and once again Live Pigeon Shooting is not included as an Olympic event. I can only hope for a large amount of beach volleyball coverage.
