GIP!

[mayhap]

I cannot even wait for the men's free skate tonight! Personally, I'm rooting for Plushy to win, Johnny to flip off the judges, and Evan Lysacek to wash his goddamn hair.

God, I wonder how many hours of Olympics coverage I've watched in the last 18 years. I even feel sort of warm and fuzzy about neverending Visa McCoke commercials and Bob motherfucking Costas.

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

Dude, I TiVo four hours of coverage and get through it in 75 minutes or less. I'm tired of all the lagtime shit this time around.

[mayhap]

If I had TiVo, I would probably literally record every single minute of every time slot and watch it. Well, maybe just skim most of the curling games.

During the commercials we look up the rules for sports that we don't understand and make fun of the commentators.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

They killed my enjoyment of the Olympic Stories stuff when they totally completely 100% overdid it with Michael Phelps in 2008. I will confess to watching every bit of Shaun White coverage though. Halfpipe is so damned hot.

I didn't know you were into hockey.

[mayhap]

I don't know if I would be able to sustain the interest over the long term, but during the Olympics I am totally into hockey.

For a long time I've wanted to read some kind of study on the use of rhetoric by commentators on international sporting events to frame a narrative of American superiority even when there isn't a Phelps to scoop up all the medals because it drives me up the wall. I think my favorite is that the Americans are always presented as having agency in developing their talent, but their international rivals are just descibed as being youthful or strong or something. Some of the commentators seem to have this nervous tick where they can't manage to say anything complimentary about anyone without also drawing a comparison with an American, like it's written into their contracts or something. (To be fair, they use similar rhetoric to build other narratives, like youth v. experience, that don't necessarily have any basis in reality, like Michelle Kwan v. Tara Lipinski in 1998.)

Halfpipe was amaaaaaaazing. Shaun White is practically playing a different sport from everyone else, he's so good.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

You know something else? And this kills me. I live in California, which means the "live" events on TV are three hours delayed, but the internet doesn't know this. So, for example, at 9:30PM (or 8:30 in the MO equivalent) I already know who won the gold medal in men's skating but it hasn't even aired yet.
It was even worse with Beijing, where if I hadn't been plagued with first trimester quease, I probably wouldn't have watched any of it, since I knew who won for about 12 hours before the stuff was aired on TV. Major buzzkill. NBC should provide a channel of live-as-happening Olympics coverage.

[mayhap]

Spoiler: he didn't wash his goddamn hair. I am disappointed with this outcome.

Absolutely ridiculous that they're not doing that. It's not like this is the dark ages where there were only three channels and broadcasting was a scarse commodity and you were lucky to be getting any Olympics at all; they could give us some actual viewing options Your time zone, particularly, should rise up in revolt.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

Oh I hit the MSN page and know, you know. Last night the half-pipe winner was all over Facebook. So. But yeah, when I know who wins, who loses, who surprises, and who wipes out dramatically, I can get through 4 hours of coverage in under 90 minutes. Like, "fast forward through this girl because she gets 4th in downhill. Oh, this one will wipe out right at the end, let's watch her." Etc.

I suppose they do it the way they do is so the 35% or so of Californians who are actually employed can watch the Olympics after work. The rest of us get to settle for soap operas and Glenn Beck.
It doesn't make sense though, because NFL/MLB/NBA/NASCAR/etc games are live here, and I don't get why the Olympics are so special as to be yesterday's news by the time they air.

[virgofolkie.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for the same outcome you were hoping for. Why all the hating on Plushenko because his approach is different than that of the younger guys? I don't know much about figure skating, but comparing him and Lysacek is kind of apples vs. oranges. Both approaches are valid, but obviously different. But all sorts of mud and "washed up" commentary was flung at Plushenko because his final score was just slightly under Lysacek's; and when E.P. questioned the scoring, it was universally mocked as "whining." Gah...

Oh...and I started shipping Plushenko/Lysacek about partway through the free skate...

[mayhap]

I know! All the Plushenko hate makes me sad, and is blown all out of proportion besides.

Definitely a lot of potential in that pairing ...