Everything wrong with NBC's dreadful coverage of the Olympics can be found here.

I know one place you won't go for Olympic updates.

Is this shit for real?

I'm 53... It's time for someone to explain to me why you should ever, ever give a rat's backside about the Olympics.

It's a 5-hour time difference for EST. When an event starts there at noon, it's 7 am here and I'm going to work. Californians are sleeping. It was stupid of NBC to promo a gold medal winner before we see the event, but to fault NBC of using tape delay is ridiculous.

I fault NBC for using tape delay. I fault them for using cameras and microphones if they don't thoughtfully compose the presentation of this material to the people they're trying to please.

It's all so trite anyway; People seeking amusement from television sports deserve to be disappointed.

Good column from Selley, but he understates the ugliness of the of the opening night show, which was (I'm told) a paean to socialized medicine. (I saw a photo of hundreds of hospital beds on Drudge... Yonder.)

People, don't WATCH this stuff! Do not bring it in to your lives! Be kind to your own immortal souls! Do something else. Play board games. Masturbate. Read good books. Read bad books. Drink, chase girls.

(Disclaimer: I watch F1 racing on the internet.)

Ahhhhh! He's baaaaaa-aaaack....

sorry Hadsil, but communication is now instant... and NBC has to get with the program and work with it that way. Tape Delay is a dinosaur, and it's just pissing people off.

NBC is trying to do that because they are a slave to ratings and the advertizing revenue that is all linked to a Nielsen system that was in vogue when we only had Three channels and PBS.

This year has certainly shown what a failure to understand new systems has wrought. What they should have done is get together an Olympic channel that is realtime on one of the digital channels, gotten together an on demand menu for that when you want, and had an easy online setup for people who want to watch that way...

But they don't want to think or anticipate that, and it shows. One of the twitter tags to watch in amusement is #nbcfail.

It IS worth asking the question if the kerfuffle is actually BIG or small, as online groaning and twitter give illusionary numbers, out of proportion.

But. I follow a person who has about 4500 followers, and she has been documenting her problems dealing with NBC/Verizon FIOS issues trying to get to where she can watch stuff.

And those 4500 tell two friends, and they tell two friends...

Bottom line, NBC has to realize that the '70s were long ago, and they will have to deal with the 21century changes to how information is disseminated...

And everyone else will have to deal with the idea that you can be spoiled when things happen live and you aren't in that timezone. There is no way around that.

> communication is now instant... and NBC
> has to get with the program

Exactly. Like any faded beauty, NBC wants to put on some powder and pretend it's still prom night... Hey! We got satellites! And videotape! And smarmy copy! You're really going to enjoy this!

(No, I'd didn't make me cry in one minute and twenty-one seconds, and there's no way for you to prove that it did.)

SoCal friends and residents out there - whatcha think of this horseshit?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/antonio-villaraigosa-poised-america-first-latino-president-142427177.html

As grovels go, this is not the worst.

Villar's got nothing going for him but grease. I bet the does a sexual spazzout before he hits the big time.

Crid,

I used to not care for the Olympics much either. THEN I became an athlete. 'Trained for hooours & hours in the gymnastics club & at the pool & then became a professional athlete for years (Springboard Diver in amusement parks).

Along the way I met a number of World Record holders in & Olympians (gymnastics, trampoline, diving) & lived w/a few & spent time working & working out w/many.

One of my old Stunt Coordinators on Miami Vice-his Mom won gold medals in the 1948 Olympics in England as did her partner, Sammy Lee. Dr. Lee went on to coach Olympic Divers Greg & Kent, both of whom I have gotten to dive with-and that's pretty darn neat!

Recently, one of the guys from open workout night at the trampoline gym down here in Orange County made alternate for the Olympics this year. He's over there now! And he gave me 1:1 instruction on refining my twisting skills (or to be honest, lack thereof). FYI: Twisting's hard. Somersaulting: Easy. In fact, it's WAAAY easier to throw a front 3 1/2 than it is to do ONE twist.

A conversation I had at a sports bar in Westwood (the one downtown & w/all the TV's) w/another diver was about doing 4 1/2 front tuck somersaults, the difficulty (I could only get to 3 1/2) & that there's more pay these days for divers. HE, unbeknownst to me was an Olympian & he's over there now too!

Anyway, like you, the Olympics I found boring. But that was before I became a professional athlete. I wonder if you'd be excited about it too, or something else, had it been more closer & personal to you.

Okay, bye for now.
:)

Adam!

> I wonder if you'd be excited about it too, or
> something else, had it been more closer &
> personal to you.

I could, conceivably, have adored country music. Or ballet. Or Japanese cartoons. Or macrame or haggis or warfare or vivisection.

But in each of these examples, as with the Olympics, I not only feel no regret for having missed the thrill, I feel deep gratitude that my life has been IMPROVED by distance from practitioners.

Blechhhhhh

Also, I there's a twitter feed I think you'll really enjoy, even if the rest of us aren't impressed.

Even back in the late '70s and early '80s I didn't give a flock about sports and the Olympics. Kid and teen.

I'm on the north side of 40 and still don't care.

What does your ability to do a 3/4 versus a double flip really help anyone? That you can tackle anyone you touch? That you can do a TKO in the second round.

Is that more important than the guy that can program the robotic system that can help you out when you have Parkinson's from multiple TKO's?

Just want to throw perspective on this.

Tangential topic:

"Social media is a phenomenon that's more powerful than the Olympic movement."

Alright listen, I ain't no Goddam hippie, OK? Most anybody who whines about "The Corporations!" is just a stooge. But I don't see that the most remarkable components of the Olympics are about anything else.

The investors in this foolishness pump all kinds of money through a bunch of corrupt semi-governmental organizations on behalf of a bunch of athletes who are completely self-interested. Useless stadia are erecting in prime urban real estate, and all the other silliness that goes on... For what? This is a "movement"? Is is like civil rights or feminism or the sheltering of the mentally retarded, one of the best movements in human history? For most of us it's bad television and trivial, meaningless jingoism. It's got nothing to do with the spread of dignity or achievement through any meaningful slice of human life.

No.

I watched gymnastics. As a former gymnast, it's all but impossible for me to avoid. Everything else I could care less about.

Won a medal at the Olympics? IRS says you owe taxes.

Bronze: That'll be $3,500
Silver: $5,385 (thank you very much)!
Gold: Pay up, Bitch! $8,986

Monsters.

I really, really HATE people who think this shit is patriotic. I mean, a VISCERAL FUCKING HATRED.

I could, conceivably, have adored country music.

A Little NSFW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAlMNRn77w4

> A Little NSFW

Unlistenable. Seriously. I suppose there's special meaning in "the words," right? I couldn't listen long enough to hear them. Could you scratch 'em out on a three-by-fiver and mail it in? (Why do people care about lyrics?)

I just can't stand country. Cain't.* But there was an intellectual breakthrough last week when I figured out that Marshall Tucker and Charlie Daniels were probably two different guys, otherwise they wouldn't have two different names. Like Englebert Humperdink and Tom Jones... Completely separate!

*Exeception. FZ wrote that solo for Sneaky Pete Kleinow, perhaps the only steel player in the world with the skill to play it. Note that even the bass player is having fun.

Unlistenable.

And here I am, trying to figure out how to play it.

OBTW, Marshall Tucker isn't a person. Charlie Daniels is.

Just FYI.