What... "ThunderDome" was already taken?
I've had enough. Not only is it the ugliest building in the world (now that the Kingdome is scuttled), but the "National Aquatics Center" is NOT A CUBE! The "water cube" has to be the most stultifyingly obnoxious and idiotic misnomer "world" journalism could nickname an edifice. I'm 1000% percent cynical that American journalists are responsible for this reprehensible jargon, but I lack evidence.
Bella was on the air a couple of days ago complaining (with a straight face) that the Argentina judge cheated when he scored a spectacular US vault at a value less than that which would have put the US closer or into 1st place in the team competition. This after the US team fell off of four (count 'em, FOUR) apparatuseseses in their competition.
Sorry Zimbabwe (and Japan, Russia, Great Britian, heck all of them but China), but let's be real: ON YOUR BEST DAY you are judged to be worse than the US when four of their gymnasts are unable to complete their routines within the boundaries provided. That this is the most BASIC REQUIREMENT OF THE SPORT and least subject to subjectivitiy...
"Uh, look guys, I know I really don't have to say this, but do what you want in the routine, just stay within these lines. Heck you can even step ON the lines, just stay inside, OK? OK!!... wait, one last thing: keep ahold of the bars when you spin on 'em and land on your feet when you're done. Y'know, just stay of off your ass and everything will be jake. Aright, let's go. Oh... except for the Americans. These things mean nothing. Go wild. We'll see you in the medal round on Tuesday. Everybody got it? Any questions? Let's all have a great night!"
I'll say it loud and proud because no one cares what I think: Judged events, while spectacular mind-boggling athletic things, are not "sport." Not when no one is allowed to upset anyone. Bella is outraged - right.
Now, I LOVE watching the US basketball team. LeBron James is the best thing ever - and the rules of international ball make him, well, the king of all the universe or something, that's all. I hope these guys beat everybody by 30. This kind of performance can make even the likes of Michelle Obama proud. I hope.
And the US comeback in the last 50 meters of the relay was OUTSTANDING. Definitely above the Michelle Obama threshhold on the pride-o-meter I would hope.
So I hear it's supposed to be a big deal that the Chinese lipped-synced one little girl's voice for another because the other was cuter - those bastards. It's like they treated the Opening Ceremonies like a show or something (cf: "Dreamgirls"). How dare they cast some performers for looks and others for sound? The plight of Tibetan monks be damned - this is the REAL human rights atrocity.
Of course the real tragedy is that the poor Red Chinese Governmental Casting Bureau didn't realize they had no need to risk the controversy because literally half the world can't tell that one Chinese kid is any cuter than any other.
Bella was on the air a couple of days ago complaining (with a straight face) that the Argentina judge cheated when he scored a spectacular US vault at a value less than that which would have put the US closer or into 1st place in the team competition. This after the US team fell off of four (count 'em, FOUR) apparatuseseses in their competition.
Sorry Zimbabwe (and Japan, Russia, Great Britian, heck all of them but China), but let's be real: ON YOUR BEST DAY you are judged to be worse than the US when four of their gymnasts are unable to complete their routines within the boundaries provided. That this is the most BASIC REQUIREMENT OF THE SPORT and least subject to subjectivitiy...
"Uh, look guys, I know I really don't have to say this, but do what you want in the routine, just stay within these lines. Heck you can even step ON the lines, just stay inside, OK? OK!!... wait, one last thing: keep ahold of the bars when you spin on 'em and land on your feet when you're done. Y'know, just stay of off your ass and everything will be jake. Aright, let's go. Oh... except for the Americans. These things mean nothing. Go wild. We'll see you in the medal round on Tuesday. Everybody got it? Any questions? Let's all have a great night!"
I'll say it loud and proud because no one cares what I think: Judged events, while spectacular mind-boggling athletic things, are not "sport." Not when no one is allowed to upset anyone. Bella is outraged - right.
Now, I LOVE watching the US basketball team. LeBron James is the best thing ever - and the rules of international ball make him, well, the king of all the universe or something, that's all. I hope these guys beat everybody by 30. This kind of performance can make even the likes of Michelle Obama proud. I hope.
And the US comeback in the last 50 meters of the relay was OUTSTANDING. Definitely above the Michelle Obama threshhold on the pride-o-meter I would hope.
So I hear it's supposed to be a big deal that the Chinese lipped-synced one little girl's voice for another because the other was cuter - those bastards. It's like they treated the Opening Ceremonies like a show or something (cf: "Dreamgirls"). How dare they cast some performers for looks and others for sound? The plight of Tibetan monks be damned - this is the REAL human rights atrocity.
Of course the real tragedy is that the poor Red Chinese Governmental Casting Bureau didn't realize they had no need to risk the controversy because literally half the world can't tell that one Chinese kid is any cuter than any other.
someone has obviously achieved the correct med dosage at last... lovely bit of journalism, RM
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This suggests I have missed the gymnastics, which I've been looking forward to, and I AM BUMMED. I do quite like it when they fall-off aparati (daft invented plural o the week) and then have to get up again, schadenfreude abounding from the opposition, and the grinding burden of national dishonour weighing like an army pack. I like this part because it serves them right for being so supple and skinny. In the 1970s, my family used to watch the olympic three-day eventing, solely in the hope of seeing a well-heeled member of the British riding team fall into a muddy ditch. Michty! ( I did feel genuinely remorseful if they were actually hurt.)
I have to say that I am sadly ignorant of the nuances of basketball,purely for cultural reasons. We are all too wee and slow-moving over here, for it to have made a big impact. This is sad, as I was a crack shot in netball class, and ought to have been picked for the school team, especially as this odd sport allows you to stand in an soccerly offside position all the time and wait for the ball to be wellied in your direction. Fat kids who are crack shots can thus play netball, but try telling that to skinny judgemental P.E. teachers...sigh.
I don't understand why such tall folk get to play basketball. I mean...they are so classy and fluid they can just sort of reach up, and cooly pop the ball in the basket, without having to wait with a dangerously arched neck, waiting to be biffed in the kisser as the ball arcs around the rim of the basket, and knocks one senseless. That sort of adds a nice frisson to the whole thing. More of an element of chance. A height restriction of five feet three, mayhap. :)
I acknowledge that, as a resident of the country who brought the world Eddie the Eagle Edwards (who practised ski-jumping at home on a kitchen chair, and brought joy to his homeland ) I am not really qualified to comment on anything to do with serious sport. Howevurr, I liked thr article, and so here I am. :o )
Good luck to yer team, and may ye enjoy the rest o the games!
Alas, I know not of either cube of which you speak. Nevertheless, I would recommend it as an effective and happenin use of space and form, especially when painted a really scary black.
Locubetis of Borg
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Eddie the Eagle sounds like our kind of guy; I'll have to give him a lookup... am sorry I don't already know of him!
"I am not really qualified to comment on anything to do with serious sport." -- as a resident of the country that brought us caber-tossing and hammer (i.e., rock attached to a chain) tossing? And that fun game wherein one throws a dirty great rock STRAIGHT UP OVER A BAR OVER ONE'S OWN HEAD, presumably dashing away in the hope that said rock will not come crashing down on one's self?
I maintain those are serious sports, indeed, and that any lumberjack sports from Canada the Scots can lay claim to as well, if they want, because Canada is sort of descended from Scotland in a crooked line (the non-Quebecquoi parts), and is kind of what Scotland would be like if it had more trees and mosquitoes and less rocks and sheep.
?
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Got to admire those Scots..........Nothin' like a nice steaming bowl o' Haggis after chucking a few telephone poles for sport!
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Wry, I can't see the video,sorry, but thanx fer posting! I saw one on YT yesterday, when I was looking to post a quick reply. The commentary was in Finnish, or sumthin, which was sort of beyond my ken. I Looked and looked for a UK soundtrack, but came up empty-handed.
Eddie was a plasterer who had a yen to become a ski jumper and represent the UK in the Olympics. He was an amateur skier who had no funding, and trained by doing stunts jumping over buses and cars. He got the money together somehow, and made it to the Olympics in Calgary in 1988, wearing the only pair of ski boots he could ger hold of - so much too large he needed to wear eight pairs of socks to keep them on. He was also about thirty pounds heavier than his sleek and professional rivals. Eddie is a real triumph of the will, Cool Runnings type character. He jumped about seventy feet, and was seen as an insult to the sport, by the pompous Europeans who were actually good at it. A special rule, known as the "Eddie the Eagle" rule, was cooked-up the following year, to keep him out for good.
Eddie was pretty much our best-loved sportsman ever. He followed his heart, and he was never going to win, but he was endearing and very very funny. We loved that the Swiss and the Austrians and the Germans were revealing a posturing pomposity over a true Olympian, overcoming mountains bigger than any of theirs - simply because he had none at home, and practised free-flying spreadeagled over the back of a kitchen chair, jammed at an angle into his table. We watched him do this on TV before he left for Calgary in 1988. He was very myopic, and jumped blindly, as ice crystallised over his specs.
There's a film about Eddie being made just now, starring Steve Coogan, though Eddie has commented wryly that he would have preferred Brad Pitt. You gotta love the man. He appreciated his own incongruity to the n-th degree. There's a website up where he can be contacted for speeches and charity events. I think he did a lot of charity work. (This is not that website tho. It is the Wiki page I cribbed a few of these details from. But I do remember them myself. Jist sayin.)
http://tinyurl.com/z848q
Laxaltman - Glad you appreciate our rugged pastimes and diet. :0) The telephone pole thing is good for the biceps, but plays merry hell with broadband connections. That is why so many of us Scots are fibre-optic cable subscriburz.
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