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olympics thoughts
So despite my typical complete disinterest in sports that don't involve doing pretty twirling on ice or doing flips on four-inch-wide beams, I actually quite enjoy the Olympics. Mostly because of the ideal behind them--the idea of the whole world getting together peacefully to just have some serious fun. Like, that's beautiful (I wish there was something else where everyone in the world got together that way--something that doesn't involve sports, but what can you do?). And I know it doesn't always live up to the ideal (Munich 72), and I also know that there's really nothing fair about modern sports (the amount of training and the facilities the rich countries get skew everything horribly towards them), I still like it.
Mostly I like hearing the stories about the competitors--those little mini-documentaries we get--and I'm always on the lookout for a good story, some beautiful transcendant moment like that one swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who had never swum the length of a pool and yet kept going a few games ago, or the time the runner hurt his leg while running and his dad came down and helped him struggle through the end of the race--people, even if sports are silly (which, they really are when you think about it), that is gorgeous.
So I'm always on the lookout for things that construct narratives out of something that is essentially narrative-less (which I think is why I can enjoy sports movies without actually enjoying sports). Yay that.
But you know what I hatehatehate about the Olympics? NBC'S COVERAGE. The way they chop things up--we get fifteen minutes of swimming, then we're back to gymnastics for thirty minutes, then we're back to swimming, then we move over to diving. NO. DO NOT WANT. It's stupid because of the time difference--you absolutely could show all of each event at the same time. I feel like they're trying to manipulate me into watching things I don't want to watch--into keeping the TV on even during events I don't care about so as to make me watch ads so they can get money. Gross.
I would watch things online where you can do it all in one sitting, except that I like making icons while I watch, and I can't do both. So I'm stuck with muting the TV during things I don't care about while keeping one eye on the screen so I can turn the volume back up when something I like comes back on. UGH.
Also: Ryan Seacrest, go home. I cannot take you seriously.
I bet y'all in other countries have better coverage than we do, don't you? Tell me about it and make me jealous.
To close on a happier note: as I was watching the countries come into the arena on Friday night, the only thing I coud think of was I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE IN ONE PLACE.
Mostly I like hearing the stories about the competitors--those little mini-documentaries we get--and I'm always on the lookout for a good story, some beautiful transcendant moment like that one swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who had never swum the length of a pool and yet kept going a few games ago, or the time the runner hurt his leg while running and his dad came down and helped him struggle through the end of the race--people, even if sports are silly (which, they really are when you think about it), that is gorgeous.
So I'm always on the lookout for things that construct narratives out of something that is essentially narrative-less (which I think is why I can enjoy sports movies without actually enjoying sports). Yay that.
But you know what I hatehatehate about the Olympics? NBC'S COVERAGE. The way they chop things up--we get fifteen minutes of swimming, then we're back to gymnastics for thirty minutes, then we're back to swimming, then we move over to diving. NO. DO NOT WANT. It's stupid because of the time difference--you absolutely could show all of each event at the same time. I feel like they're trying to manipulate me into watching things I don't want to watch--into keeping the TV on even during events I don't care about so as to make me watch ads so they can get money. Gross.
I would watch things online where you can do it all in one sitting, except that I like making icons while I watch, and I can't do both. So I'm stuck with muting the TV during things I don't care about while keeping one eye on the screen so I can turn the volume back up when something I like comes back on. UGH.
Also: Ryan Seacrest, go home. I cannot take you seriously.
I bet y'all in other countries have better coverage than we do, don't you? Tell me about it and make me jealous.
To close on a happier note: as I was watching the countries come into the arena on Friday night, the only thing I coud think of was I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE IN ONE PLACE.