Has it been Four years already??
So here we are...The Winter Olympics opened today in Torino,Italy. Canada is hopeful that we can have the best ever Olympics this year...Of course they said that in 2002 too...But whatever...
As a Sports fan I can say that I do enjoy the Winter Olympics in comparison to the Summer games...The summer sports just seem so boring..Jumping. Running, throwing sticks , swimming and some diving. I mean all the same people win...You know a Kenyian is going to win the marathon , they have to do something to the Summer games that could make them more exciting...100 meter sprint?...Chased by tigers...Hurdles?..Have to make the jump with a midget on your back as he wacks you with a branch telling you to "Go Faster little doggie", diving?...one word.."Sharks"
I mean the Winter Olympics have an element of danger in almost every event...It is very possible that someone could die at any given time. This right there has my vote as the better of the two. Winter events are so much better.."Here lie down on this glorified sled face down and go down this ice covered track at 120 Km an hour...Yeah we'll call it Skeleton but if you do it on your back we'll call it lugs..." Yup great idea! I watch merely to see who wipes out, who falls and I am still waiting for that Biatholon shooting miss hap to happen. One of these days damn it someone involved with biathalon will be shot by accident.
Then of course there is the cornerstone to the Olympics, the men's Hockey Tournament. With the NHL shit down for the next two weeks this is the only hockey we get..Canada should do well...(Hey Wayne can your wife place a bet for me too?). Yes sir...Guns, people getting hurt..Illegal betting sounds like an episode of the sopranos..Kind fitting that they are in Italy.
And I know that the Olypmics are a big deal but man have you seen the opening ceromonies to these things..Amazing..They cost a shit load of money though. I seriously think that Vancouver should try and down scale the ones for 2010. How you ask?..I think it should start with a potluck dinner..Everybody bring something..Then there should be that standard of Canadian pop-culture The MuchMusic Video dance party and then just hang a big "Open for business" sign on stadium..We could probably get by with only spending a couple grand..
posted by jobe @ 1:53 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I was liking and agreeing with your post (expecting the sadistic violence bit...) up until the your inexplicable suggestion for the 2010 games. What the hell was that?! If Vancouver did that the Canadians would be the laughing stock of the Olympic world. Canadians are already the butt of American jokes, let's not provoke this into an international thing. A potluck?! Much Music Video Dance! This is the OLYPMICS, not a middle school dance/fundraiser!! I shake my head at you...I sincerely hope you were joking!
I think that the Olympics themselves are mostly a sham.
Sure, nations can funnel millions of dollars into training for their athletes, but meanwhile there are underfunded hospitals and a crime rate soaring out of control.
They are good for building patriotism,(or fanaticism, if you are from THAT country,) but really, what else are they except a reason to gloat on the world stage, and sell merchandise with your crest on it?
I like that the olympics used to be about nations coming together and showing off their prowess in a festival devoted to Venus. It really wasn't about war, despite the marathon beginnings, and once they got over the whole battlefied hatred, like the 1914 Christmas cease-fire, they probably could be friendly. I imagine them all laughing and joking with their peers on a big pitch: Occasionally some guy would go "Hey, watch me throw this javelin," and he'd wing it way out there. Some guy's little brother would go on out and get it, and say "Yeah, Remus, you got it past that bigass rock out there." And everyong would cheer him and clap him on the back. Maybe there were places to sit for people to watch.
Then someone had to go and sell tickets, make it all important and stuff, and now we have ice-dancing and the people who obviously cannot judge it, for example. There's all this testing and rulings and similar detritus of the attempt to legally keep everyone honest: Idiots with score cards and tape measures and stock watches to measure hundredths of a damned second.
I think the people will get a reward of their own fashioning, and that maybe the IOC will get the same reward: the games, in the current format they are now cannot survive many more years where the judging, the product tie-ins and the hoopla actually outweigh the performance itself. It's gonna get smaller soon.
There's a big shake-up coming, and maybe it'll happen in 12 years when no network will want to pick up the broadcast - at any price - because no one watches any longer. Suddenly the big product placement, the big competition for hosting cities and the pressure to succeed despite the personal costs take a bit of a hit. The joy of competing raises its head just a bit. Cities will have to maintain themselves at a more even rate, and crime prevention and other important services cannot be ignored for the sake of this gamble on a favourable tourist season.
When that day finally comes, I think the goddess venus would be pleased, if she were real.
oh yeah. Thanks to Jen's post, I can finally spell my cousin's name -- having to ask her would have been embarrassing!
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