Winter Olympics in Turin

Let me get this thread started off on the right foot.

I don't care.

Anyone watch the opening ceremonies? Was there anything as hilarious as watching Al Gore go completely off the beat in 1996?

I probably wont be watching a minute of coverage that doesn't have blades of steel, frozen discs of vulcanized rubber and teeth shattering hits in the name of one's country.

I sat down to watch a bit of the opening ceremonies, and I got the following:

- Neat intro
- View of the stadium, up pops the following: "Prerecorded" (as in, already happened many hours ago).
- Switch to NBC Olympic Headquarters; announcer starts telling how the winter olympics have the athletes enter first (as opposed to the way the summer games do it). Fine so far.
- Next words out of his mouth: "We'll be bringing the the opening ceremonies to you in about 40 minutes, but first we want to show you profiles of three American hopefuls. ***" (click)

NBC sure has started out on the same ole' foot. Profiles out the wazoo. I expect prime time coverage to go something like this:

- Summary of days events;
- Sap story of some athlete
- Ice skating coverage (warm-ups, qualifying, competition, free skate afterwards, you name it)

Not Turin. "Torino"!

I care about the Olympics for hockey. Last Winter Olympics' hockey was the best hockey I had ever watched. I've looked forward to more Olympic hockey ever since then.

Oh, I bet the opening ceremony went over really well in the red states.

[/sarcasm]

Oh, I bet the opening ceremony went over really well in the red states.

Why, what happened?

LeapingGnome wrote:
Oh, I bet the opening ceremony went over really well in the red states.

Why, what happened?

It's towards the end. The Olympic flag was paraded in being held by, among others, Susan Sarandon, Salvador Allende's niece (you know, the president of Chile that was ousted with the help of the US by Pinochet), an environmentalist from Kenya, and a human rights activist from Cambodia. Then Yoko Ono (yes, that Yoko Ono), read a free verse poem calling for world peace to introduce Peter Gabriel, who sang "Imagine."

Of course, that's assuming people out in the States actually made it through the expressionist and surrealist act that was going on before hand, followed by the long speaches from the various Olympic committee folks.

Yoko Ono? What the hell?

What Edwin said...what the f*** is Yoko Ono doing reading a verse. I'll be honest, the other ones don't bother me, although, honestly, the Olympics is about athletes, not peace-stuff...it just politicizes the event. But Yoko Ono - anyone else think she may be the human with the least artistic talent on the planet?

Also, what I hate ---

Pairs figure skating - ok...Russians skated flawless, deserved to win this time...no prob. But the chinese pair, lady falls, they go over to the side, take some time, talk to the coach, decide to finish...and get the bronze --- WTF? Look - if you preordain who wins/loses, don't hold the event...wastes our time! I mean, how bout bronze to someone that actually skated a clean good program!!!

"It appears that the countries are coming out to an apparently random assortment of American 80's pop..."

FTW!

Pigpen wrote:

Also, what I hate ---

Pairs figure skating - ok...Russians skated flawless, deserved to win this time...no prob. But the chinese pair, lady falls, they go over to the side, take some time, talk to the coach, decide to finish...and get the bronze --- WTF? Look - if you preordain who wins/loses, don't hold the event...wastes our time! I mean, how bout bronze to someone that actually skated a clean good program!!!

Actually, they got the silver....

Bode DQ'ed

And no, it's not about booze.

I made sure to Tivo all of the days that have figure skating. That way my wife and daughter can skip to what they want, and our household is not prisoner to hour after hour of coverage. Of course, last night my daughter starting explaining to me how awesome the luge is. Ugh!

I pretty much detest the Olympics. But my wife doesn't bug me about watching the Jayhawks, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Chiefs, so I don't mind if every few years we get stuck watching the Olympics. I can always load up some Civ III (I'm a Mac guy, so I'm still waiting for IV) for awhile. Either that or pester some message board with my thoughts about the world.

I can always load up some Civ III (I'm a Mac guy, so I'm still waiting for IV) for awhile

Reminds me of the chuckle I get out of that Kiefer Sutherland/Mac/Intel commercial claiming that the chip is FINALLY free to take on the world now that its in a mac

Excellent hockey games today, especially the US vs Slovakia. I love seeing Bondra, Hossa and Satan playing together.

I love seeing Bondra, Hossa and Satan playing together.

When you have the lord of darkness on your side you can't lose!

Finland - USA 4-3 Finland wins!!

Yeah baby!! Suomi Finland Perkele!

Flying Tomato news

Movie star Lindsay Lohan may have a new man in her life - Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. The couple shared an intimate night together at New York club Bungalow 8 on Tuesday - and White is already boasting about his latest conquest. The champion snowboarder, who won gold last week in Italy, says, "Her and I ended up meeting up at the famous Bungalow 8. It was a good time. It was a trip. Coming home from Italy, everybody's been running up to me, saying how proud they are. It's been crazy and so I had to get some time to have fun."

You snooze, you lose, Sasha Cohen.

Well, well, well [SPOILERS]...

[color=white]Sasha Cohen fell during the free skate and is number 2 in the competition behind Shizuka Arakawa of Japan with both Slutskaya and Meissner left to skate. She could still medal, but the gold is out of her reach. First Lindsey Lohan steals the Flying Tomato away from her, now this.[/color]

Oh, mercy...

[color=white]Slutskaya must have f*cked up, since she only got the bronze. Sasha gets silver with Arakawa taking the gold home for Japan. So much for the Russian sweep.[/color]