I mean seriously. Every three minutes on NBC it’s Karaplaka Kyplokivich grew up in the streets of Blakflakistan, where everyone has only three fingers and are forced to eat their own babies. But she practiced the uneven bars every day for 23 hours, and 24 on Sunday. Despite having nothing to eat her entire life, she was able to take an amazing 323rd place in the women’s semi-quarter final of the tryout to the semifinal of the tryouts to be considered maybe for a position as a matt mover on the Blakflakistan Olympic Team.
Just show me the goddamn sports! It’s enough that I’m watching it six days late! For the love of God, won’t anybody think of the sports?!!?!?
And now my roommate insists on watching Survivor reruns instead. I’ll have to fight him to the death for the remote.
Oh jeez, I laughed so hard I think I ruptured something.
Did you see the Very Special Report about Ian Thorpe’s dead gay sister’s boyfriend’s brother who has a um… throat infection, no wait, CANCER?! I was so inspired I changed the channel.
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Five months, one week, four days, 2 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds.
6564 cigarettes not smoked, saving $820.58.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 1 day, 19 hours, 0 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. *(Amen, brother!)[/i
I’m sure this will get me some flames but I loved the Olympic Moment tonight: that lone man, swimming, in a pool probably six times as long as any pool he has ever been in, let alone seen. Just him alone, going and going…
I shit you not, I cried. I felt for him. He was there by a wild card; he never had a chance. But rather than mock him that crowd cheered him on, just to FINISH. I don’t know about you but that really rocked my heart. If may not be faster, stronger or higher but it was a damn lot of sprit.
Okay, enough of the softy; some of the “athlete profiles” are not only sad, scary but annoying as I feel they are using them at the expense of showing me the competition. I watched from 6-11 tonight and I must say that I probably, at best guess, saw only 45 minutes of actual competition.
Don’t get me wrong; I want to know about these folks, their challenges and drives but I also want to see the competition… so, who’s up for some ballroom dancing?
No flames from here Byzantine. And anyone who does flame you for that post is a dick.
That guy, Eric I think, from Equatorial Guinea was amazing! I was at the gym when I saw it and it was all I could do to keep from openly weeping. I had goose bumps all over. I don’t know how to describe the emotion I felt as I saw him struggle through the last 25 meters or so with the crowd going absolutely apeshit for him. It was truly, laterally, awesome.
He has more courage than anyone I have seen in a long time. That’s what the Olympics should be all about.
(And I just heard on the news that Nike has given him one of their fancy new body suits to help out his times!)
Year after year, olympics after olympics, we see GYM(fucking)NASTICS, puctuated by long bouts of horrendously boring SWIMMING. I swam all through high school and college, and still I can’t stand to watch that shiyat!
And now…all events we choose to telecast must have some personal story to relate to. My favorite was the men’s triathalon. We watched lovely movie and sound bytes about 5 different guys who didn’t wind up finishing in the top 50…
And the Ameri-centric shit is a bit peeving too. The (fucking) gym (fucking) nastic announcers actually GASPED IN HORROR when Amerigo vas Fuckup fell off the highbar. Strange…the Hindenberg crashes and burns, and the announcer is canned for it…now the people “can’t even believe” that we didn’t get a medal, and I have no doubt at all that they’ll be brought back next time.
NBC promised the advertisers an 18.3. As far as I know they’ve yet to break 15. So, in addition to being shitty, piss-poor broadcasts, they aren’t even making the numbers. El croco de bullshit.
<cackle>On a side note, this is my first post to flameville. Pointers as to how to be more angry and sadistic would be greatly appreciated.</cackle>
MrWhy – thanks! That to me was heart and soul… if Nike did give him ANYTHING even a suit to help him out I’m impressed and think more highly of them!
It may not be faster, higher or stronger but again, it was spirit; that man was just damn FUCKING glad to be there! I support him all the way in his drive to come back, perhaps in 2004 for a real grand show!
Hey, don’t put it past him; we’ve seen grand placement and comebacks before; it would rock my world if him or one of his teammates came back in 2004 and took ninth! I’d be cheering them on the WHOLE way! Even if they did kick U.S butt you’d better believe my heart would be with them!
I love my country but I do love the “underdog” and I guess I always will! What I really love is the spirit of the games and that man, he IS the spirit, he IS what it’s all about! He had no idea of what was really going on, he was just so happy to do his part… I’d lift him on my shoulders and parade him if I could!
THAT is spirt! That is all the best of what these games are! And you never know… someone out there could have seen a drive in him and become willing to sponsor him… I hope so… I really, honestly do… he deserves a real honest chance…
I stand and applaud him! I celebrate his spirit and drive and I hope to see him or his team mates again!
Yeah, I loved it too. Reminded me of that sprinter, in Barcelona? Atlanta? who tore a muscle, but wanted to finish the sprint, and his dad came out of the stands to help him across the line. Both were heartwarming and inspiring.
Now, why could that be?..let’s see…they were about… an ACTUAL OLYMPIC EVENT, which could also be callled an ACTUAL OLYMPIC MOMENT. It was about the spirit of competition, of striving to do your best regardless of what your chances of winning are, and all that other stuff about sports and athletic competition that, every now and then, can actually be inspiring. It wasn’t an “Olympic moment” about some spy who saved JFK. I guess the Olympic tie-in there was…Australia? So anything involving the continent or country of Australia, anytime in history, can now be construed as an Olympic moment? That cheapens both the historical event, and actual inspiring Olympic moments.
And could somebdy clarify…do those little hops on the landings result in tenths deductions that add up? Despite the benefits a commentator who apparently has a rare genetic defect resulting in her only being able to say “OOOHHH, but those little hops add up”, I’m still not clear. Maybe after hearing that insightful commentary a few thousand more times, I’ll catch on.
What does surprise me is how clearly I can hear what she’s saying. Normally, the spoken word is quite muffled when one has one’s head THAT FAR up one’s ass.
Remember Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, the British ski jumper at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary who always finished dead last and was visibly happy to survive each jump?
I remmeber that they changed the qualification rules so he and others like him couldn’t go to Albertville in 1992.
I think that sucks shit. Either the Olympics are for the joy of sport or they’re not. I would not suggest letting everyone in the world get a shot in the sport of their choice, but the eligibility requirements should allow for the maximum possible number of competitors from the maximum possible number of countries. If Eddie the Eagle wants to represents the UK and he’s willing to put in the time and effort to do so, why not let him?
The guy from Guinea knew he had no chance in hell - the other competitors would quite literally have had to die for him to win - so why was he there? Because he was proud to represent his country and do his best. He lost the race by about five days and he was happy because he’d left it all in the pool and could say he was there for Equatorial Guinea, just as much as Ian Thorpe’s there for Australia. There was a Kenyan cross-country skier in Nagano who was the same thing; he barely finished the race and he was thrilled to do it, and IIRC the Norwegian champion congratulated him on his performance. If that isn’t what the Olympics SHOULD be about I don’t know what else it could be.
I’d pay real cash money to see that guy swim his laps and I’d be screaming as loud as anyone for him. I wouldn’t go to see the Dream Team win another meaningless game for endorsement money if you paid me to go.
That, really, is why the Up Close and Personal, soft-shot crap on NBC is so irritating. These are the friggin’ OLYMPICS; real life drama is unfolding every hour. There’s simply no need for those dumb profiles when three camera crews could beam home top-notch drama twelve hours a day.
Why did NBC screw this up so badly? There are only four possible explanations:
They’re legitimately so stupid that they didn’t know what the public wanted to see and it’s costing them three and a half points.
They’re incompetent and couldn’t pull off live coverage.
They’ve had the Olympic deal so long they got overconfident.
The project of broadcasting the Olympics is so big, and so many people are working on it, that it just sort of fell apart at the seams and now there’s nothing they can do about it.
I gotta admit, I loved that one too. I was impressed and inspired. But the rest of the shit is obnoxious and trite. I wouldn’t mind more of that type of coverage, but the biographies are just a FUCKING WASTE OF TIME.
I’ve tried watching some of the Olympics. But after 7 minutes of commercials and 2 minutes of commentary, the 1 minute of event was just not worth the frustration level.
If I wanted to watch a soap opera, I wouldn’t turn on the Olympics and watch the “up close and personal” segments. Instead, I’d skip out of work early. Now there’s an idea …
I’m back. The worst Olympic moment I’ve recently had was during the Nagano (sp?) olympics. I came home around midnight on a Friday, and turned on the tube. I shit you not, ONE HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES WENT BY without ONE SINGLE SPORTING EVENT!!! Skiing had been washed out by a snowstorm, but fer Chrissakes, switch over to curling or something! I was so pissed off I called CBS’s HQ to complain. Surprisingly, an irate phone call from a drunk at 1:15 A.M. had little effect on corporate policy.
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Five months, two weeks, four days, 2 hours, 35 minutes and 15 seconds.
6844 cigarettes not smoked, saving $855.54.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 20 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!)
