Olympic Time Warp
I live several miles from the nearest cable and I just can't justify $60/month for a dish. What I can get right now with rabbit ears is fuzzy and somehow over the last year I've just gotten out of the habit of watching it. 99 percent of my "TV" viewing is watching DVDs these days and mostly I'm happy with that. But then comes the Olympics, one of the few sporting events I actually care about watching, and I start having to tell my Id to shut up we are not getting a dish just for the month of February.
Fortunately I have a cousin who was willing to tape a good bit of the games for me. It's sort of pot luck. I have no idea what's on the 20 odd tapes except for the opening and closing ceremonies. I did tell him I wanted figure skating so I'm pretty sure that's on there.
Because my viewing time during the week is limited I'm still only on the fourth tape so while the rest of the world is looking back on the Olympics as a done deal I'm probably going to be working my through them for weeks to come. So if I decide to throw in a comment about something that happened and for me it was today and for you it was 3 months ago there isn't a discrepancy in the space/time continuum.
Really there isn't.
It has nothing to do with it anyway.
I have a new hero now, but being me I can't remember her name. The girl who wore a large rhinestone tiara in her event, which involved skying very quickly down a short course and running over a bunch of floppy sticks, is nuts for not wearing a helmet but I'm giving her 15 out of 10 for style. I wonder if she's a Sweet Potato Princess or just one of the weird and cool.
There have been a lot of comments about how bad the games were this year and I think they have to be talking about NBC's really lame coverage and not the events themselves. What happened to the former Olympians serving as color commentators and being so excited to be back that they just make you care about just about any thing? (Although Cross Country Pursuit is a lost cause to me. ) The commentators this year were, to borrow from Zaphod Beeblebrox, so unhip it was a wonder their pants didn't fall off.
The tiara girl was a case in point. While I was squeeing and feeling a burst of girl power the two lumps covering the event were going on and on about how it showed disrespect and was in bad taste and maybe she should wear a helmet? Bite my shiney metal ass you stuck up, over the hill, has beens.
The camera work is really bad too. Too many things shown at a distance that really cried out for a close up and vice versa. Between the bad commentary and the bad camera work events that you can tell were really exciting to see first hand, like the half pipe, were somewhat less than attention grabbing.
The goat of the games has to be the American girl who took home the silver in the Snow Board Cross event. This was the first time that this event has been in the Olympics and the first time I've seen it. It's great! One NPR commentator compared it to roller derby on snow boards. In this even you are allowed to crowd your opponent and force her off the track if you can.
So, it's the final run -- the first, second, and third place finishers in this race will medal --there are, I think, five girls but there could have been a sixth I lost track of. The track goes over a series of little jumps and curving bits and they are headed out at high speed. The American early on maneuvers so she is out front and proceeds to leave everyone in her dust. Two of the girls tangle up and end up flat on their backs out of the race. One of them gets taken off on a stretcher. The Canadian girl messes up and goes right through a snow fence. As long as she can get back on the track though she can get a bronze since there are only three people left in the race so after a moment she struggles up and, with the snowboard still strapped to her feet, hops like a rabbit back onto the track to resume the race.
Meanwhile the second place girl is losing more and more ground and it's gonna be a gold for the US for sure. And then *cue ominous music* the American risks looking behind her and sees that she's got a lock on it as long as she stays on her board and keeps moving forward. She decides to do a little aerial trick at the next jump to celebrate, fails to stick the landing, and goes tail over tea kettle . The second place girl, no doubt promising the deity of her choice a lifetime of faithful service for arranging this, zips by. The American gets up quickly and starts down again but there isn't enough track left for her to catch up and she has to watch as the other girl takes the gold.
She just stood there and cried and watched as the winner's team piled out to give her hugs and nobody from her team made a move toward her for a couple of minutes. The coach assumed the face palm position and had an expression that would indicate that his ulcer just had a litter of baby ulcers.
This is the sort of thing you watch the Olympics for!
Fortunately I have a cousin who was willing to tape a good bit of the games for me. It's sort of pot luck. I have no idea what's on the 20 odd tapes except for the opening and closing ceremonies. I did tell him I wanted figure skating so I'm pretty sure that's on there.
Because my viewing time during the week is limited I'm still only on the fourth tape so while the rest of the world is looking back on the Olympics as a done deal I'm probably going to be working my through them for weeks to come. So if I decide to throw in a comment about something that happened and for me it was today and for you it was 3 months ago there isn't a discrepancy in the space/time continuum.
Really there isn't.
It has nothing to do with it anyway.
I have a new hero now, but being me I can't remember her name. The girl who wore a large rhinestone tiara in her event, which involved skying very quickly down a short course and running over a bunch of floppy sticks, is nuts for not wearing a helmet but I'm giving her 15 out of 10 for style. I wonder if she's a Sweet Potato Princess or just one of the weird and cool.
There have been a lot of comments about how bad the games were this year and I think they have to be talking about NBC's really lame coverage and not the events themselves. What happened to the former Olympians serving as color commentators and being so excited to be back that they just make you care about just about any thing? (Although Cross Country Pursuit is a lost cause to me. ) The commentators this year were, to borrow from Zaphod Beeblebrox, so unhip it was a wonder their pants didn't fall off.
The tiara girl was a case in point. While I was squeeing and feeling a burst of girl power the two lumps covering the event were going on and on about how it showed disrespect and was in bad taste and maybe she should wear a helmet? Bite my shiney metal ass you stuck up, over the hill, has beens.
The camera work is really bad too. Too many things shown at a distance that really cried out for a close up and vice versa. Between the bad commentary and the bad camera work events that you can tell were really exciting to see first hand, like the half pipe, were somewhat less than attention grabbing.
The goat of the games has to be the American girl who took home the silver in the Snow Board Cross event. This was the first time that this event has been in the Olympics and the first time I've seen it. It's great! One NPR commentator compared it to roller derby on snow boards. In this even you are allowed to crowd your opponent and force her off the track if you can.
So, it's the final run -- the first, second, and third place finishers in this race will medal --there are, I think, five girls but there could have been a sixth I lost track of. The track goes over a series of little jumps and curving bits and they are headed out at high speed. The American early on maneuvers so she is out front and proceeds to leave everyone in her dust. Two of the girls tangle up and end up flat on their backs out of the race. One of them gets taken off on a stretcher. The Canadian girl messes up and goes right through a snow fence. As long as she can get back on the track though she can get a bronze since there are only three people left in the race so after a moment she struggles up and, with the snowboard still strapped to her feet, hops like a rabbit back onto the track to resume the race.
Meanwhile the second place girl is losing more and more ground and it's gonna be a gold for the US for sure. And then *cue ominous music* the American risks looking behind her and sees that she's got a lock on it as long as she stays on her board and keeps moving forward. She decides to do a little aerial trick at the next jump to celebrate, fails to stick the landing, and goes tail over tea kettle . The second place girl, no doubt promising the deity of her choice a lifetime of faithful service for arranging this, zips by. The American gets up quickly and starts down again but there isn't enough track left for her to catch up and she has to watch as the other girl takes the gold.
She just stood there and cried and watched as the winner's team piled out to give her hugs and nobody from her team made a move toward her for a couple of minutes. The coach assumed the face palm position and had an expression that would indicate that his ulcer just had a litter of baby ulcers.
This is the sort of thing you watch the Olympics for!
posted by Ranuel | 7:41 PM
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