You know, I turned on the Today show for the first time in a couple of weeks this morning.
Is something going on in Beijing?
If it's important, let me know; I just rolled over and went back to sleep.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wake Me When It's Over
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
22 comments:
The Chinese have apparently cloned some sort of mutant swimming dynamo and named him Michael Phelps. Many people are competing in other, less important sports in celebration.
Apparently the most important thing going on in Beijing is NBC's talent...at least that's what I've gathered from their coverage.
Shit, I laughed out loud when I saw what filename you gave the photo.
Beijing Olympics Blogroll indeed.
I tried to wipe my add with my blogroll once but it took me hours to clean the monitor afterward...
Can't take credit for that -- it was that way when I found it.
apologies for the "add" instead of "ass"...writers are their own worst copyeditors...
What's going on in Beijing is the only thing that gives me hope for humanity every two years, the Olympics, you ass. : )
It's wonderful to see athletes competing from all over the damned world; unlikely but refreshing things like a Brazilian woman in gymnastics, a Chinese hurdler/sprinter, and yes, even the over x 1,000,000 exposed Michael Phelps whose athleticism is on it's face unbelievable.
Chez, I love you, but one thing I cannot be misanthropic about with you is sports in the Olympics. Do I think major league baseball players are generally douchebags who stand for the majority of their careers waiting for a ball to be thrown or hit at them and who also for some reason (that absolutely escapes me) get paid about 42 million dollars a year more than you should for your talents? Yes. Same for NBA players, although at least they're athletic. NFL, some of them, who don't weigh 300+ lbs. just pushing things (other 300 pounders, namely) same as well. Those are just some examples. I tire of the bullshit that is professional sports in many countries, too. It's somewhat ridiculous, actually.
I guess I personally give a lot of props to athletes. People who find motivation, strength and discipline in their lives through athletic participation. I don't think it's "better" than other ways of finding motivation, strength and discipline, academics for example. But for a couple of weeks every two years in either Winter or Summer Olympics I feel like there is good sportsmanship left in humans. Like there's not a political angle. Like people from nations as distinct as Togo and Argentina can hang out at the Olympic Village, have a meal, shake hands and compete against each other in an event. All in the name of sport. How can that be bad?
I had the Mark Spitz poster on my bedroom door (yes, I am that old, and yes it frightened my mother because it was life-sized and she thought we had intruders!). I'm a big swimming fan, big because I love it, and big in that I'm fat so it's the only sport I excell at! So, the Phelps thing is BIG for me! Missed the rest of it...
Apparently, China is trying to pull a fast one on the world over in Beijing.
I mean, they're professing to care about the ENVIRONMENT (Nice smog), HUMAN RIGHTS (Yeah. Right.), FAIR PLAY (Very "fair" scoring system put in place by the IOC. http://tinyurl.com/57w6r9 ), and even FREEDOM OF THE PRESS (Look how hard we've had to fight for basic internet usage there, at a premium and still somewhat restricted).
Funny how China's security budget for keeping the Olympics "safe" is "$12-billion -- to put that in perspective, Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics just five months after September 11, spent $315 million to secure the games. Athens spent around $1.5-billion in 2004." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/5aaa7s )
Total cost to China so far has been $40 Billion ( http://tinyurl.com/65vpym ), where Salt Lake City spent a mere $1.3 Billion (And the city walked away with $101 Million in pocket change. http://tinyurl.com/6s2nqy ).
Come on, does anyone really believe all that money is going just toward the Olympics and some of it isn't intended to be used in the long term to further restrict the citizens of China?
I suppose it's always expensive pulling the wool over the world's eyes.
Oh, Chez. How can you stand to keep your head in the sand all the time? Have you no awareness, no interest, no concern about what's happening outside of your little monkeysphere? Great things, important things are happening over there. To wit: they've concluded that "Beijing" is pronounced not with a soft "zh" but a hard "j." If that's not international progress, I don't know what is...and you're missing it!
anonymous... everything you quoted was mentioned during opening cermonies coverage on nbc. i'm not sure that's fleecing anyone. that's where i heard all those stats. not defending. just saying.
yeah it sucks that they're (the olympics) in a country where human rights are less than in other countries. i'm not sure why it matters how much they spent though, other than to say holy shit, that's a lot. i imagine england will spend more for 2012 summer games just because it seems to be a one-upping thing. maybe not. maybe they'll be more judicious with their cash. looks like china did this whole thing the way china does lots of things... to the zillionth degree of preparation and premeditation. i'd be surprised if it had gone with ANY sort of a glitch. and it still could, but i doubt it.
Suzy --
What Anon is saying makes perfect sense. A week or so ago I mentioned an article that explained why. Read it here.
As for the athletes themselves, certainly not trying to take anything away from them, but the overblown spectacle of hyper-promotion -- self-promotion on NBC's part, which has benefitted GE wildly -- is kind of irritating.
I guess I look past all the crap NBC's doing and just watch the games. I read that post last week and thought what Naomi Klein said was brilliant. And with all that information out there for the public's perusal I just don't see why the informed should be feeling duped. In other words I get what you and anon are saying. But when you look through all the politics of host and competitor it's an awesome story going on over there.
I've been to two Olympics: L.A. and Atlanta. Both times I couldn't get rid of the goosebumps. Maybe I'm gullible that way. Maybe it's also because I've been an athlete most of my life and can imagine what it feels like to be an Olympian. All I wanted as a young girl was to be an Olympic soccer player - but it wasn't an Olympic sport for women when I was a teeneager. So I can just imagine.
It really sounds like we're addressing two different things here. Awareness of what might be (or in this case, is) going on beneath the surface doesn't make me cheer, hope and celebrate any less. It's silly psych 101 assignation behavior, but it's fun, light and harmless to love the Olympics. : )
Oh and since I live in Detroit, I'm lucky enough to watch non-NBC coverage through the CBC. So it mixes it up a little to follow Canadian athletes. And it's a little more tolerable.
ok, really... i'm done. teenager. eager i wasn't.
Allowing the world's largest totalitarian system to host the Olympics is the epitome of political myopia.
And it also shows the direction the winds are blowing.
We are legitimizing China's practices even further by giving them this outlet.
We already make them the world's largest exporter.
We apparently love talking out of both sides of our mouths, as a nation.
This can't continue forever...
Hrrumph. The Olympics. They do EVERYTHING wrong. Or everything right. From my medal stand it all looks ridiculous: NBC presenting the games with the same overblown importance they did the Pope's visit (or the previous pope's death, for that matter); the retarded scoring systems which are in place, by the way, because of past cheating, the making of demi-god of athletes who are just as big assholes as professional athletes, because in most instances they ARE professional athletes; the mock ignorance of China's civil rights record only surpassed by the righteous indignation over little sins, like not putting a buck toothed darling on display, as if by highlighting this the media has done it's best to denounce China's crimes; the often egregious behavior of the athletes in terms of sportsmanship, like the wrestler who threw his bronze medal on the mat and walked off the podium or the Chinese soccer player who kicked an opposing player in the balls and was red carded, after which another Chinese player elbowed another opponent, thus marking the first and second banishments from the tournament, which NBC didn't report with anything near the hosannas directed at Phelps (mater, not Michael); the overwhelming correlation between the economic prowess of a nation and the athletic prowess of the competitors; the inclusion of sports in which one country dominates to the point that they NEVER lose, like women's softball, or beach volleyball (really? BEACH volleyball?).
Am I just looking at the negative? Yes. To Suzy I would say, I admire and respect your ability to see in these games everything I can't. I was an athlete as a teen as well. I went to the junior Olympics, and trained with the U.S. Olympic swim team, with a fast track to the '76 games, but instead chose pot and LSD. My bad. I understand the training and sacrifice (up to a point, I guess), and I marvel at the athletic ability of these kids. Fair enough. I can clearly see your point. But when a country awards money for every gold medal (as many do) it ceases to be about mere athletic competition and more about commercial return on investment. Michael Phelps, and all other athletes from developed countries benefit from an economic investment, while athletes who's mere presence at the games is a little miracle get no mention, or recognition. (Bud Greenspan, I await your insights.)
The Olympics you and I watched as teens are dead. You talk about the separation of athletics from politics, while I can't ignore the fact that overt politics are easier to stomach than hidden politics. I really hope you enjoy the remaining days, sincerely. For my part, the Olympics I watched as kid died with Jim McKay.
It's called the Olympics, Chez. See, every four years hundreds of athletes from around the world come together to compete in different sports. Then, NBC (or whichever network won the bidding contest) chooses it's favorite four athletes and tells you everything you never wanted to know about them in little sentimental profile pieces. In between this drivel, they might show an event or two incessantly narrated by former Olympians who can't get past the fact that they are no longer Olympic athletes and therefore have to pick apart even the best performances. It all ends with some of the athletes receiving gold, silver or bronze soap-on-a-rope.
For an example of the chicanery of NBC and IOC and the politics involved see this:
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/08/free_tibet_free_the_olympics_a.php
beethoven... thanks for the thoughtful comment. i agree that the games are different now, to say the least. remember the streaker at the montreal games? can't do that anymore!
i'll keep working on peeling away the douchbaggery surrounding the games and focus on what's left of the human part i love.
and finally, getting paid, or not, things like the triathlon and decathlon are just plain amazing to me.
The LSD Olympics.
Now there's a competition I could watch...
Votar...what about the Retard Olym....DAMMIT....
Men's half tab see the music, floor exercises, with strobe.
"Votar of the U.S. Acid team will be performing to music from Hendrix' "Are you Experienced". His first combo has a difficulty rating of 5.6. It's called the "wide eyed grasp air and melt". OH! He nailed it! Look at that form! Not since Jackie Gleason in "Skidoo!" have we seen such perfection!"
move to canada.
we suck and nobody watches.
Post a Comment