Winter Olympics

After competing in my own "winter olympics" at Sugarbowl ski resort near Lake Tahoe, in which I crashed too many times to even call it funny, I returned to my beautiful Oakland apartment for some rest and relaxation today catching up on chores, errands and TIPOANTD. (Things I Put Off And Need To Do) This last item included everything from washing dishes to rearranging the old stuff I keep stored in boxes on the balcony to doing the laundry. As a reward for my work, I then treated myself to 2 hours of olympics on TV tonight. I did enjoy the men's downhill slalom, won by the Austrians, and the women's "Super G", also won by the Austrians. Seems the Austrians do just fine in skiing. I'm curious if Arnold still cheers for his home country or has he cut off all his ties now that he has angered his hometown of Graz with his decision to let convicted California drug dealing murderers be executed?

Anyways, I wanted to cheer for America, I really did. But after all the "Bode Hype", I just can't get real excited about that so-called ski superstar of ours. Anyways, he bombed on the runs, "bombing out' being the operative word (merely "bombing" in ski slang would have meant he was really fast). I was less interested, but nonetheless watched, some of the ice dancing. That was actually a pretty interesting event to watch, if somewhat long (like 5 minutes a pair). I'd like to mention a few things about that event:

1) is it just me or does the TV network purposefully hire really feminine-sounding commentators to narrate that event? Why can't they get normal people? People that drink beer and sometimes mess up pronunciation and don't gush all over some couples outfits and choice of musical accompaniment? Speaking of which, they should do the same for the snowboard broadcasts and toss out all those adolescent, surfer sounding people they have doing the broadcast now.

2) is it just me or are the "winning" moves in the ice dance usually a form of imitated sex? Let's look at this picture of the winning Russians as an example:

See what I mean? All that's missing is a good old pelvic thrust and their ecstasy would be complete! I believe I did see some pelvic thrusts in the French pair's dance (forgot their names).

3) is it just me or are the selection of sound track accompaniments to the ice dance just absolutely awful? Is dancing to French cabaret music on the ice is supposed to be elegant? Or techno-infused tango? C'mon! Can't you just pick some nice classical music like Debussy's "The Swan" or maybe a Broadway tune like "Don't Cry for me Argentina"? In fact I think all the skaters should skate to the same music. That way the audience could tell the pretenders from the performers apart a little easier.

I know your answer: it's just you. Well, think of a different answer please because though I'm wrong half the time, I'm not wrong all the time!

p.s. I plan to apply for a spot on the Olympic Ice Dancing judging committee in 2030. Hope it's in a nice place and they still pay off the judges then! :-)

p.s.s. for your amusement I included a new post on the topic of Olympic sports on T.V. Please take a moment to complete it. There is even a "curmudgeon" entry for all you people who come here just to logon to spam my guestbook and call me names.