The Social Olympics

[mayhap]

It took some doing, but we finally got the evil cable leviathan to disgorge our login information so we can stream NBC's fabled live feeds. The first thing I tuned in to live was the contested end of the men's gymnastics team final. The second thing I tuned in to live was Korean fencer Shin A Lam's protest/sit-in. You do not want me watching your event live, is what I'm getting at here. Nothing good will come of it.

I've also been dipping my toes a little further into tumblr, including hitting up the Olympics tag during commercial breaks. It is less of an unmitigated joy than the Avengers-related tags that I sometimes read; they both have lots of pretty pictures of pretty people and funny memes, but the Olympics tag has a lot more bonus unfun racism to scroll past.

I made my own animated gif of the adorable face that Japanese gymnast Uchimura Kohei made when they posted his final score in the men's team finals. Then I cropped it a zillion times because apparently when tumblr says "Max size 10MB", they actually mean "Max size 1MB if you're posting an animated gif, which of course you are, because this is tumblr". On DW/LJ, though, you're free to watch it in all of its 2.6MB glory, behind this cut.



My main problem with the Summer Games is too many sports, too little time. During the Winter Games, even if you stick with/are stuck with NBC primetime coverage, you are going to end up seeing at least a taste of everything, regardless of how esoteric, which is what I enjoy the most. Whereas there is so much going on in the summer that even a super-competent and even-handed network would struggle to cover it adequately and, well, this is NBC. Although this is our first Olympics since the acquisition of a high definition television, so in that respect the quality of their coverage is excellent. ;)

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

NBC needs to relegate the feel-good story shit to a different channel, like Bravo. Show me more diving and equestrian, please. If it's all going to be delayed by seven hours, they can cut the commentary, speculation, and useless filler, and show non-US countries. I can only hope other countries' coverage isn't so US-centric.

[mayhap]

Tape delay means they cut the non-US althletes even MORE. I swear they only showed 3-5 routines by non-US male gymnasts in the team finals, which was pretty fucking ridonkulous since the US men were failing left, right and center and they knew who the winners were going to be so they could have squeezed them in at some point.

I'm surprised the equestrian events get so little love. I mean, lots of people love horses, or at least their imaginary idea of horses. I feel like this is a neglected opportunity.

Also why are they grooming Ryan Seacrest as Bob Costas Mark II dear God.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

Apparently I am not too old to join an equestrian team. Therefore it should have a broad appeal.

I watched the pommel or whatever of the men's final, but they were all horrid, so I looked up the results and then just skipped over the whole thing. I'm in disagreement with the instant-replay of judging that screwed over the Ukranians, but I didn't see any Ukranian routines. I did see a Japanese guy with a $100 bill in his hand apparently bribing the judges for the silver, which was unintentionally hilarious.

Luckily I've been tivoing the coverage and skipping all the shit, since I just don't have time for the non-events filler, so I've only seen Ryan Seacrest once. I've also noticed that compared to Vancouver, they're showing a lot less of that creepy old lesbian whose name escapes me (who regaled us with all the finer points of Canada in 2010). Maybe because there are more races/meets to cover?

Perhaps they could take a few minutes at the beginning of the prime time coverage and show a highlight reel of the rest of the day, like they do on Sunday nights during football season. I'd like to see badminton highlights without having to change the channel.

[mayhap]

Apparently that's a thing now — you wanna lodge an appeal in a bunch of different events, you gotta put down cold, hard cash. Some of them refund it all if your appeal is successful; others apparently charge an administrative fee regardless. It's hilariously, cartoonishly sketchy. And oh man, that replay was anything but instant. They cut like twenty minutes of guys standing around looking anxious while a bunch of dudes in blazers huddled around one laptop, so good editing choice there, I guess.

I think it might be time for them to give up pretending that no one knows any results until they sit down at 8/7c. and find a new way to cover sports that have already happened. Maybe that will actually happen sometime next century.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

You know, I happened to see the first few minutes of the NBC news here tonight (1830 EDT), and Brian Wilson told everyone the outcome of the gymnastics all-round and the swim races. Maybe someone should tell Bob Costas.

[mayhap]

I think his brain would explode and his plastic face would melt off.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

I was imagining him sneaking up behind Brian Wilson with a mace and bludgeoning him upside the head. Crazy Olympic sportz drama!