you see, im all for the display/celebration of physical prowess, but the pageantry and gloryhounding is just eeeuuuggghhhh
and then on top of that with football the sport-doing is celebrated by... stuffing your face with enough 7-layer dip to feed a grown man for a week and getting shitfaced.
kind of missing he point there
so yeah, it's fun to be wildly and spitefully uncharitable towards it
there is part of me that wishes to live the stereotype of football gluttony but my inner Rolly doesn't work that way
thinking back, i actually really disliked the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
i got over it, but for a time it soured the whole experience for me
and i know it had all the good stuff about the NHS in there but that felt insincere to me coming after the very twee middle class golden age pastoralism at the start
also Emeli Sande's performance of Abide with Me was truly abysmal, idk what happened there
idk, i guess i was hoping for a ceremony that was, y'know, ceremonial? with a bit more gravitas? i wouldn't have minded a bit of fun, showing off our pop culture and stuff, but it was like we were incapable of taking *any* of it seriously, and that was how we chose to present ourselves to the rest of the world
like, it was the kind of ceremony you'd put on if you were tasked with celebrating "Britain", but your idea of Britain came from a half-remembered O-level history class, and you had no interest whatsoever in actual British traditions
which is probably reflective of the national attitude, but not something i think is worth celebrating, y'know?
like, it was the kind of ceremony you'd put on if you were tasked with celebrating "Britain", but your idea of Britain came from a half-remembered O-level history class, and you had no interest whatsoever in actual British traditions
this is, like, any depiction of history majorly sponsored by any state, it's not uniquely British.
I wonder what it says about us that the sports that traditionally qualify to be "America's pastime" (baseball and American football) have a lot of idle time. Pretty much every other major league sport here (basketball, hockey, even soccer) keep things moving and doesn't dick around as much.
To be honest, the Olympic committee is a really corrupt institution and tends to do a lot of damage to the cities selected in various ways without bringing much money into the actual local economy, so I can't say I'm a huge fan of the institution as it currently exists.
idk i was at London 2012 and it was pretty cool. like, i had tickets to women's handball, which sounds like a nothing sport but was actually the most vicious sporting spectacle i have ever seen. so far as i can tell the aim of handball is to try and murder the opposing team by shoulder charging them to death. it was great and i had good fun cheering on the Angolan women's handball team. that's my olympics story
my favourite thing about the London olympics was how when there was no british competitor the crowd would always choose the most obscure country that was competing and cheer for them
The fact that the IOC asks for so much with so little in return is why I'm actually kind of glad Washington hasn't won an Olympic bid. We have enough problems keeping things together for our own population, and the Games seem to be as well-known for their white elephants as they are any athletic achievements.
Honestly we need to just pick one country and hold the Olympics there forever. Fuck, make a giant yacht or something and do it in international waters.
I'm kinda tired of all these giant-ass multibillion-dollar stadiums getting thrown together in inhospitable places with extensive fatalities and then getting used for less than a month before turning into urban blight.
Honestly we need to just pick one country and hold the Olympics there forever. Fuck, make a giant yacht or something and do it in international waters.
I'm kinda tired of all these giant-ass multibillion-dollar stadiums getting thrown together in inhospitable places with extensive fatalities and then getting used for less than a month before turning into urban blight.
We would, but Poseidon cursed the Olympics long ago
I have to wonder if the Olympics even has any benefits for international relations anymore, or if it ever did (as opposed to "benefits" paid directly to IOC directors' palms by sponsors and/or equally corrupt governments).
I was going to say something here about the modern Olympics' entire history being tainted, but a quick check of Wikipedia shows that it seems to have had completely noble intentions at first (and you know what they say about the road to Hell).
Comments
there is part of me that wishes to live the stereotype of football gluttony but my inner Rolly doesn't work that way
i got over it, but for a time it soured the whole experience for me
and i know it had all the good stuff about the NHS in there but that felt insincere to me coming after the very twee middle class golden age pastoralism at the start
also Emeli Sande's performance of Abide with Me was truly abysmal, idk what happened there
idk, i guess i was hoping for a ceremony that was, y'know, ceremonial? with a bit more gravitas? i wouldn't have minded a bit of fun, showing off our pop culture and stuff, but it was like we were incapable of taking *any* of it seriously, and that was how we chose to present ourselves to the rest of the world
like, it was the kind of ceremony you'd put on if you were tasked with celebrating "Britain", but your idea of Britain came from a half-remembered O-level history class, and you had no interest whatsoever in actual British traditions
which is probably reflective of the national attitude, but not something i think is worth celebrating, y'know?
However. This sounds amazing.