Childress Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 China set the bar very high with the opening ceremony of the 2008 games in Beijing. Every moment was spectacular, with awe-inspiring technical effects and masses of musicians and dancers performing in perfect unison. A bit totalitarian to be sure but I think the essence of spectacle. The English, on the other hand, thought that rather than a precisely choreographed multitude, it would be more Western, more individualistic, to have mobs shuffle about dressed as farmers, laborers, Suffragettes, National Health System workers, and children bouncing on beds. Result: pure mass confusion and incoherence. Unfortunately (says one of essentially Scottish descendance) the salient features of G.B. these days appear to be its teetering health system, its fondness for pop music, and its fashionably (and forcibly) randomized demography, which has so atomized this population that it is now apparently the law of the land that no two people of the same human subgroup may appear on stage at the same time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 No offenses but the Olympics are just plain "gay". It is catered to chicks and has been for over a decade. It's might as well be produced by Oprah. Endless stories about how this athlete had this "adversity" or that "hurdle". "Al, up next the Women's 400m medley. In lane 3 is Bianca Schlitz from the former republic of Trajeekastahn. Bianca was conceived in a test tube by Eastern bloc scientists and adopted by a Portuguese Lesbian couple with Down’s syndrome, after the Berlin wall fell. She was born with a clubbed foot and clef pallet. Her Portuguese parents crafted a crude shoe made of tin and leather to reform Bianca’s foot into the shape of a flipper. Bianca trained hard in local irrigation canals and at age 7 was kidnapped by a one eyed, Mexican swimming coach with epilepsy. And now she is poised to win a gold medal”. Back to you Al. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Thought the opening ceremony was great, and haven't heard any sob stories from day 1. Which Olympics are you 2 watching?? the Grinch version?? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 dpa may have just the trace of truth in the medias increasing efforts in finding stories and creating heroes. I suspect the 1948 version would have listed the contestants by nmae and country and the film reel recorded andplayed back the action. But of course they were very unsophisticated then and did not have the sports agent or rely on sponsorship etc to fund them during the year and for some , a very few, provide a lucrative career. So the media now has access to plenty of short human interest stories that can be packaged and resolved over a few weeks. And this helps fill screen time !! In some countries there are no TV adverts to fill : ) I may be alone in feeling that the Olympics in a lot of sports has become a place where professional athletes get plenty of exposure for doing what they do as a trade and the amateurs who do sport for fun have been pushed out. My only hope is that perhaps the media could get excited about brain activities in the same way! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mathematical_Olympiad I have seen one program about it and it was full of human interest! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted July 30, 2012 Author Share Posted July 30, 2012 "Al, up next the Women's 400m medley. In lane 3 is Bianca Schlitz from the former republic of Trajeekastahn. Bianca was conceived in a test tube by Eastern bloc scientists and adopted by a Portuguese Lesbian couple with Down’s syndrome, after the Berlin wall fell. She was born with a clubbed foot and clef pallet. Her Portuguese parents crafted a crude shoe made of tin and leather to reform Bianca’s foot into the shape of a flipper. Bianca trained hard in local irrigation canals and at age 7 was kidnapped by a one eyed, Mexican swimming coach with epilepsy. And now she is poised to win a gold medal”. Back to you Al. Ha, ha. A classic! And likely 100% true. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boche Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 So none of you celebrate that there just may be some actual sport in all this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 So none of you celebrate that there just may be some actual sport in all this? The sports media has trivialized sports with endless catering to the female demographic and human interest angles. I and many others call it, “chicafacation”. Carlin called it, “pussifacation” of the population. Call it what you want but when the NFL “celebrates” Breast Cancer awareness for a whole friggin month with pink ribbons and cleats, well you can see the war is lost. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Dunno about pussification (and I'm really not sure how supporting breast cancer awareness can be seen as a bad thing :eek: ), but the Olympics certainly does seem aimed at the sports-hating patriot. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 No offenses but the Olympics are just plain "gay". It is catered to chicks and has been for over a decade. It's might as well be produced by Oprah. Endless stories about how this athlete had this "adversity" or that "hurdle". To be fair, NBC has toned it down in recent years. I haven't been watching a lot -- mostly women's beach volleyball -- by I see far fewer of those specially produced athlete profiles than I remember from 10 years ago. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSBoxer Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Big fan of beach volleyball as well and I am already sick of NBC delaying the matches 3 hours so they can show 1/3 of the match in prime time while cutting away to a human interest piece on a swimmer, or a guided tour of a London landmark. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce90 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Bloody Olympics!!!!! Nothing else in the newspapers, nothing else on tv and radio news and to top it all off it now seems the £100 I paid for a licence for our beloved multi interest covering BBC television service has been donated to something which I can only call Olympic Television as the channel shows nothing else from morning till night seven days a week. Its enough to make a monkey chew his nuts! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 Its enough to make a monkey chew his nuts! Thanks for the unforgettable image! It has a lingering quality all its own. And its gotten my mind off picturing JonS in a muscle shirt. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Apparently NBC has problems with presenting stuff live and pretends its live even when its actually 6 hours later. Seems a bit dishonest! And according to NBC reporter the bike racing when through the Surrey countryside past chateaux?! Does chateaux have a special meaning in Merican or simply a term for large houses somewhere in Europe? However criticising NBC on Twitter is a bad thing: guyadams Guy Adams The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com Apparently it was this last tweet that got Adams in trouble, because he “posted an individual’s private information.” Except, um, it’s a corporate e-mail address. Besides which, if posting somebody’s private information was a banning offense, Spike Lee would’ve been kicked off Twitter months ago when he posted somebody’s home address because he thought George Zimmerman lived there. But hey, all he did was try to send a vengeful mob to somebody’s house. It’s not like he put down NBC. WTF, Twitter? More on this story from The Daily Telegraph: In an email to The Daily Telegraph, Christopher McCloskey, NBC Sport’s vice-president of communications, said Twitter had actually contacted the network’s social media department to alert them to Mr Adams’s tweets. “Our social media dept was actually alerted to it by Twitter and then we filled out the form and submitted it,” he wrote… Twitter and NBC entered into a partnership to cover to Olympic Games this month, with the technology company featuring highlighted tweets from sports insiders in return for on-air promotions. No money was exchanged in the deal, according to reports… “If what NBC is saying is true, it undermines everything that Twitter stands for and is an absolute disgrace and will aggravate many millions of its users,” [Adams] told The Daily Telegraph. So now, by trying to shut down criticism, NBC and Twitter have put a spotlight on it. Good. Adams responds to NBC compounding their Olympics disaster with this PR disaster: Nice one Twitter. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boche Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 The sports media has trivialized sports with endless catering to the female demographic and human interest angles. I and many others call it, “chicafacation”. Carlin called it, “pussifacation” of the population. Call it what you want but when the NFL “celebrates” Breast Cancer awareness for a whole friggin month with pink ribbons and cleats, well you can see the war is lost. Well, ive been watching allot of the Olympics, and all ive seen is pure sport. No fancy interviews, no fancy public awareness adverts, nothing. Must be an US thing with your channels... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 So none of you celebrate that there just may be some actual sport in all this? Sport? Some of us have been too busy re-watching our favorite bits. Like the rainbow coalition dudes in stovepipe hats marching in commemoration of the Industrial Revolution. Thank heaven for Tivo! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Considering the usual garbage that passes for entertainment on the boob tube, I'd say the Olympics are blessed relief. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bodkin Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 The sports media has trivialized sports with endless catering to the female demographic and human interest angles. I and many others call it, “chicafacation”. Carlin called it, “pussifacation” of the population. Call it what you want but when the NFL “celebrates” Breast Cancer awareness for a whole friggin month with pink ribbons and cleats, well you can see the war is lost. I hope this comment is purely random ignorance speaking by mistake, because if it was an actual conscious thought it would be an embarrassing tribute to your stupidity. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bodkin Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 I hope this comment is purely random ignorance speaking by mistake, because if it was an actual conscious thought it would be an embarrassing tribute to your stupidity. Sorry if I caused any offense with this comment, my mum has been battling against breast cancer for the last few years. I should not have taken the comments personally, so my apologies if I was too critical. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 No offense taken. Sorry about your Mum. Lost my Grandmother to Breast Cancer. She loved her football and would have found pink shoes on male athletes that play a violent sport upsetting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkmek Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I agree with abrams on the football thing. I have lost a friend to breast cancer and I donate yearly as well as sponsor a co-worker on her walks but for Chrissakes enough with the pink ALL MONTH! If they took the money they spent on all the pink doodads they coulda cured it by now! Even in Madden the pink is there for October! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I agree with abrams on the football thing. Wait until the class action suit against Riddell and the NFL is resolved. The NFL as we know it may be finished. Once you get chicks and lawyers involved, it always spells the end of a good thing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Once you get chicks...involved, it always spells the end of a good thing. Should we take that as meaning that you are opposed to sexual reproduction? Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Should we take that as meaning that you are opposed to sexual reproduction?Michael Objection, no foundation. You have taken me out of context. Look I love the womern, I truly do. I have had several full time night womern my own self. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Wait until the class action suit against Riddell and the NFL is resolved. The NFL as we know it may be finished. Once you get chicks and lawyers involved, it always spells the end of a good thing. Who would have thought that repeatedly hitting your head against something would cause damage. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Yeah. MORE BRAIN DAMAGE FOR PROFIT! The NFL won't be possible without it! It's right there in the 1st Amendment. Or maybe the 18th. 3rd? I forget. Damned dementia 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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