"like a fine automobile on a bumpy road"
Feb. 13th, 2006 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
e_clareAlthough I have fond memories of watching the Athens opening ceremonies and Paralympic swimming (at work and in Bath, respectively), it's been a long time since I really got into an Olympics season. The summer games never hold much interest for me -- the only sport I'm really interested in is riding, and those events are only broadcast in the wee hours of the morning -- and during the Salt Lake games, I was busy being a crazy high school senior, and trying to figure out what to do with my life.
Watching the (admittedly goofy) opening ceremonies on Friday night was a blast. I hadn't planned on watching any of the coverage, but I read the NYTimes recap of the ceremony on Friday afternoon, before it aired. And even though it sounded fantastic, nothing could have prepared me for the utter awesomeness of the 3-D mountainous dresses, or the giant celestial balloons, or Yoko Ono, or Pavarotti and his hankie. Nor was I prepared for the utter attractiveness of the athletes. There are some fine-looking people hanging out in Turin right now, is what I'm saying.
What this is leading up to: I feel like I spent the weekend watching TV.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mirror_dancer came over for a cookie-baking date and more sports-watching (luge! moguls! PAIRS SKATING!). Eva and Rhea came over for dinner tonight and still more sports -- snowboarding and sk-jumping this time. There may be male figure skaters adorning our living-room wall right now (just for the duration of the Olympics, really). And tomorrow night, there's more pairs skating! And speed-skating, and skiing, and it'll be ever so fun.
I'm enjoying the sports commentary almost as much as the events themselves. The biographical tidbits, training info, and trivia is endlessly amusing, because it's always the same. The Olympics are their very own reality TV show, with just as much manufacturing and careful editing devoted to the athletes' storylines as anything else on TV. Did you know they call him "The Flying Tomato"? And that he is a world-champion Rollerblader? She's recovering from a devastating injury; his hometown raised thousands of dollars to send his family to Italy with him; she's the oldest competing luger (is that a word?) ever, etc. It's AWESOME!
And the commentators are either really helpful, in the educational sense -- breaking down the scoring system, throwing out tidbits about what the judges are looking for in snowboarding events -- or really hilarious and not helpful. My subject line comes from last night's women's moguls finals. Dick Button is a perpetual wet blanket in the ice rink and seldom has anything positive to say, but the Polish pairs team got an "aw" for their cute ending.
In the end, it's always fun to yell at the TV, and few things are better for that than the Olympics.
When I yelled, "Can we get drunk and watch the Olympics every weekend" last night? I was only half-kidding.
For banannagoats: Sven!
Forolivia_circe (non-Olympic, but I found it unexpectedly saved): 19th-century!Giles
PostSecret manages to be simultaneously more depressing and uplifting than usual...and now I'd much rather sit and make Valentines instead of working on my thesis or making up questions about The Cherry Orchard. Could be dangerous.
Watching the (admittedly goofy) opening ceremonies on Friday night was a blast. I hadn't planned on watching any of the coverage, but I read the NYTimes recap of the ceremony on Friday afternoon, before it aired. And even though it sounded fantastic, nothing could have prepared me for the utter awesomeness of the 3-D mountainous dresses, or the giant celestial balloons, or Yoko Ono, or Pavarotti and his hankie. Nor was I prepared for the utter attractiveness of the athletes. There are some fine-looking people hanging out in Turin right now, is what I'm saying.
What this is leading up to: I feel like I spent the weekend watching TV.
mirror_dancer came over for a cookie-baking date and more sports-watching (luge! moguls! PAIRS SKATING!). Eva and Rhea came over for dinner tonight and still more sports -- snowboarding and sk-jumping this time. There may be male figure skaters adorning our living-room wall right now (just for the duration of the Olympics, really). And tomorrow night, there's more pairs skating! And speed-skating, and skiing, and it'll be ever so fun.I'm enjoying the sports commentary almost as much as the events themselves. The biographical tidbits, training info, and trivia is endlessly amusing, because it's always the same. The Olympics are their very own reality TV show, with just as much manufacturing and careful editing devoted to the athletes' storylines as anything else on TV. Did you know they call him "The Flying Tomato"? And that he is a world-champion Rollerblader? She's recovering from a devastating injury; his hometown raised thousands of dollars to send his family to Italy with him; she's the oldest competing luger (is that a word?) ever, etc. It's AWESOME!
And the commentators are either really helpful, in the educational sense -- breaking down the scoring system, throwing out tidbits about what the judges are looking for in snowboarding events -- or really hilarious and not helpful. My subject line comes from last night's women's moguls finals. Dick Button is a perpetual wet blanket in the ice rink and seldom has anything positive to say, but the Polish pairs team got an "aw" for their cute ending.
In the end, it's always fun to yell at the TV, and few things are better for that than the Olympics.
When I yelled, "Can we get drunk and watch the Olympics every weekend" last night? I was only half-kidding.
For banannagoats: Sven!
For
olivia_circe (non-Olympic, but I found it unexpectedly saved): 19th-century!GilesPostSecret manages to be simultaneously more depressing and uplifting than usual...and now I'd much rather sit and make Valentines instead of working on my thesis or making up questions about The Cherry Orchard. Could be dangerous.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 07:00 pm (UTC)But he gets married in (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/e_clare/miscellany/lillie5.jpg) uniform (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/e_clare/miscellany/lillie7.jpg). It's a damn fine 10-minute appearance, I have to say.