Off the Top of My Head Online (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} otmh) wrote,@ 2006-02-27 01:36:00 |
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Feb. 28, 2006
Well, that's it. Another Olympic Games have (has?) come and gone. As always, I've been glued to the tube, cheerfully - even avidly - watching sports I never even really think of at any other time, and I haven't been alone. Friends of mine all over this great nation have happily watched utterly obscure sporting events no one ever televises at any other time (when was the last time you saw a non-Olympic bobsled competition on TV? And yet they have many of them every year), then discussing what we've all seen in an Internet chat room. We've had a blast with this stuff.
I'll level with you, I like the Winter Games best. Maybe that's because the first Olympics I can really remember watching on TV were in winter (Sarajevo, 1984, if you're scoring at home). Maybe I just like to watch winter sports more. Maybe it's because of my ninth-grade crush on Ekaterina Gordeeva. Who knows. The fact is, though I'm always up for the Olympic experience, I look forward to the Winter Games more.
I realize this puts me athwart a few of the big guns of the you-should-care-what-I-think business - most notably Bryant Gumbel, who squeezed in a little studio time to dis the Winter Games for no readily apparent reason just before they began. At the end of his little rant, Gumbel tried to justify his disdain for the Winter Games by making a weak attempt at playing the race card, but what it looked like to me was that he's just not into winter sports and, for whatever reason, begrudges others their enjoyment of same.
Frankly, I've made great strides toward inner peace solely through not caring what Bryant Gumbel thinks, and this is no time to be re-evaluating a policy that's worked well for years. Join me, won't you? Together we can save the world.
Anyway, the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Here are some of the high- and lowlights as I saw them:
1. The opening ceremonies. What the hell? I'm no fan of attempts to be Artsy at the best of times, so Olympic opening and closing ceremonies haven't cut much ice with me over the years. (The only exception I can think of offhand was the 1984 closing, which I don't remember well now but which I recall thinking was rather sweet and unpretentious - the city of Sarajevo thanking the rest of the world for stopping by and having a drink.) This time around, though, whoever arranges these things really outdid themselves. The only phrase I could think of to summarize it was "Cirque du Soleil Presents a Sixth-Grade School Play". (My friend John insists that it's "A Bunch of Sixth-Graders Present Cirque du Soleil", but he's a Known Frog Circus Apologist.)
2. Curling! The sport another friend of mine calls "darts with rocks" was one of the breakout hits of the 2002 Games, prompting NBC to schedule a lot more curling on its cable networks this time around, and it worked out for them in a big way. With the US men's team turning in the best showing yet, the U.S. women's team having a disappointing time of it but looking good on TV in the process, and one of the best booth teams in the business providing the coverage, the sport may just have arrived in the USA.
Speaking for myself, I was aware of it before; I grew up in Maine and got a Canadian TV station for most of my formative years. Still, I never gave any serious thought to enjoying it, either as a spectator sport or as something I might attempt to play, until last week. Now I've just got home from a curling club open house. I may not be the typical American, but still, if just one in a thousand of us is turned onto the game like that, do the math.
3. Bode Miller. For the record, I was tired of this guy before the Olympics even started, and I have a TiVo, so I didn't actually have to watch his "Bode On: Whatever" ads. I have to confess that I took a certain completely un-Olympic delight in his consistent failure. Every time I tried to settle myself down and get past that unsportsmanlike urge, the commentators would point out some other stupid, lackadaisical, arrogant thing Bode was doing ("each competitor got an hour to look over this course, but Bode came out, had a look around for eight minutes, took a leak over by that gate and went back to his trailer for a nap") and I'd be filled with wrath again and rooting for Anybody Else.
A lot of people have speculated on punishments, karmic and otherwise, for Bode after he tanked in the Olympics by visibly not giving a damn. I think I've come up with the best one. Remember that guy whose job seemed to be standing at the start gate yelling encouragement at the skiers? Bode has to let that guy follow him around and similarly exhort him about everyday activities for a month.
"PAY THOSE BILLS, BODE! LET'S SEE YOU PAY THAT PHONE BILL, BODE MILLER! SHOW THE PHONE COMPANY HOW MUCH YOU WANT CONTINUED SERVICE! YOU GOTTA GRAB THOSE GROCERIES, BODE BOY!"
That ought to learn him.
4. Bob Costas. He looked like he was actually getting enough sleep this time around, which made him a little less fun, but still, Costas just seems to get better every time they do one of these things. His commentary on the last Saturday night, after Tom Brokaw's interview with the aforementioned Tankmeister, was a thing of great and vicious beauty, almost Olbermannian in its remorseless assault on a man who, if we're being honest, deserved it. People sometimes get on Costas's case for doing "soft" commentaries and interviews, and to an extent they're right - it's the Olympics, there's a lot of the ol' feel-good going on - but the man knows how to play hardball, or at least fast-pitch softball, when the occasion demands it.
Out of room! Next week: more o' the same.
Well, that's it. Another Olympic Games have (has?) come and gone. As always, I've been glued to the tube, cheerfully - even avidly - watching sports I never even really think of at any other time, and I haven't been alone. Friends of mine all over this great nation have happily watched utterly obscure sporting events no one ever televises at any other time (when was the last time you saw a non-Olympic bobsled competition on TV? And yet they have many of them every year), then discussing what we've all seen in an Internet chat room. We've had a blast with this stuff.
I'll level with you, I like the Winter Games best. Maybe that's because the first Olympics I can really remember watching on TV were in winter (Sarajevo, 1984, if you're scoring at home). Maybe I just like to watch winter sports more. Maybe it's because of my ninth-grade crush on Ekaterina Gordeeva. Who knows. The fact is, though I'm always up for the Olympic experience, I look forward to the Winter Games more.
I realize this puts me athwart a few of the big guns of the you-should-care-what-I-think business - most notably Bryant Gumbel, who squeezed in a little studio time to dis the Winter Games for no readily apparent reason just before they began. At the end of his little rant, Gumbel tried to justify his disdain for the Winter Games by making a weak attempt at playing the race card, but what it looked like to me was that he's just not into winter sports and, for whatever reason, begrudges others their enjoyment of same.
Frankly, I've made great strides toward inner peace solely through not caring what Bryant Gumbel thinks, and this is no time to be re-evaluating a policy that's worked well for years. Join me, won't you? Together we can save the world.
Anyway, the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Here are some of the high- and lowlights as I saw them:
1. The opening ceremonies. What the hell? I'm no fan of attempts to be Artsy at the best of times, so Olympic opening and closing ceremonies haven't cut much ice with me over the years. (The only exception I can think of offhand was the 1984 closing, which I don't remember well now but which I recall thinking was rather sweet and unpretentious - the city of Sarajevo thanking the rest of the world for stopping by and having a drink.) This time around, though, whoever arranges these things really outdid themselves. The only phrase I could think of to summarize it was "Cirque du Soleil Presents a Sixth-Grade School Play". (My friend John insists that it's "A Bunch of Sixth-Graders Present Cirque du Soleil", but he's a Known Frog Circus Apologist.)
2. Curling! The sport another friend of mine calls "darts with rocks" was one of the breakout hits of the 2002 Games, prompting NBC to schedule a lot more curling on its cable networks this time around, and it worked out for them in a big way. With the US men's team turning in the best showing yet, the U.S. women's team having a disappointing time of it but looking good on TV in the process, and one of the best booth teams in the business providing the coverage, the sport may just have arrived in the USA.
Speaking for myself, I was aware of it before; I grew up in Maine and got a Canadian TV station for most of my formative years. Still, I never gave any serious thought to enjoying it, either as a spectator sport or as something I might attempt to play, until last week. Now I've just got home from a curling club open house. I may not be the typical American, but still, if just one in a thousand of us is turned onto the game like that, do the math.
3. Bode Miller. For the record, I was tired of this guy before the Olympics even started, and I have a TiVo, so I didn't actually have to watch his "Bode On: Whatever" ads. I have to confess that I took a certain completely un-Olympic delight in his consistent failure. Every time I tried to settle myself down and get past that unsportsmanlike urge, the commentators would point out some other stupid, lackadaisical, arrogant thing Bode was doing ("each competitor got an hour to look over this course, but Bode came out, had a look around for eight minutes, took a leak over by that gate and went back to his trailer for a nap") and I'd be filled with wrath again and rooting for Anybody Else.
A lot of people have speculated on punishments, karmic and otherwise, for Bode after he tanked in the Olympics by visibly not giving a damn. I think I've come up with the best one. Remember that guy whose job seemed to be standing at the start gate yelling encouragement at the skiers? Bode has to let that guy follow him around and similarly exhort him about everyday activities for a month.
"PAY THOSE BILLS, BODE! LET'S SEE YOU PAY THAT PHONE BILL, BODE MILLER! SHOW THE PHONE COMPANY HOW MUCH YOU WANT CONTINUED SERVICE! YOU GOTTA GRAB THOSE GROCERIES, BODE BOY!"
That ought to learn him.
4. Bob Costas. He looked like he was actually getting enough sleep this time around, which made him a little less fun, but still, Costas just seems to get better every time they do one of these things. His commentary on the last Saturday night, after Tom Brokaw's interview with the aforementioned Tankmeister, was a thing of great and vicious beauty, almost Olbermannian in its remorseless assault on a man who, if we're being honest, deserved it. People sometimes get on Costas's case for doing "soft" commentaries and interviews, and to an extent they're right - it's the Olympics, there's a lot of the ol' feel-good going on - but the man knows how to play hardball, or at least fast-pitch softball, when the occasion demands it.
Out of room! Next week: more o' the same.
