Well the good news about the Canada v. Switzerland game on MSNBC is that it cut Tweety to only half an hour.
The bad news is that I had the misfortune to watch him at all.
Of course if you tune back in at midnight, you’ll get to see that fatuous gasbag for a full hour.
Be still my heart.
No changes in schedule since this afternoon, it’s still pretty much, Men’s Downhill, Pairs Free Skate (Long Program), Snowboard Cross, and Speed Skating (Men’s 500m).
The Snowboard Cross should be much more like NASCAR than this afternoon’s time trials but don’t expect asphalt collapses and flaming chunks of twisted metal (though it is entirely possible someone will slide across the finish line on their roof head).
But it’s really a failure of imagination, pure sports ignorance, and pandering to the “Bubba” audience not to compare it with Moto-Cross which it was modeled after. It’s a twisty obstacle course with double jumps you have to carry by far enough or FAIL and frankly I saw a lot of people landing short. The bottom of the turns tend to get rutted too so maybe asphalt failure is not that bad a metaphor (but a major NASCAR FAIL! at Daytona).
4 Boarders to a heat so you get some interaction, but in Moto-Cross they start them 8 or 16 at a time so it’s no worse than that. In NASCAR you get 32 Cars in 2 Lines wrecking each other 4 or 5 at a clip in the last 2 laps which they have to restart over and over and over and over again until they get a clean White Flag (next to last) lap.
After that it doesn’t matter how many of them wreck eack other, the race is done. The other 495 miles are just for shits and giggles.
They actually did stick with the (yawn) Cross Country this afternoon which surprised me, especially when it ended early. Of course they did it out of crass calculation.
NBC Ruins Olympics Men’s Downhill For Millions Of Fans
Henry Blodget, Business Insider
Feb. 15, 2010, 2:17 PM
(A)s usual, NBC wants to maximize its revenue by delaying the event until the most people will watch it: This evening in primetime. The live finals of the figure-skating pairs competition and other events presumably weren’t enough to ensure the massive audience NBC needs to lose less of its shirt on these Games.
…
Someday, perhaps, the NBC Sports brass will understand that the world has changed in the past 25 years. Within an hour or two, the name of the winner of the Men’s Downhill will be everywhere–on the radio, on other TV stations, on the Internet, on news sites. Even people who want to play along with NBC’s self-serving little game will have a hard time avoiding the news. Thus, for most of them, the most exciting event at the games will be ruined.
And there’s some skating too.
Tomorrow evening Caribou Barbie will be handling Olympic coverage. I urge you to make it a fun and exciting experience.
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Canada now has just as many Goals Against as USA.
Author
Schedule confirmed with the addition of Polar Bears (in half an hour, your kids won’t wan to miss it).
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That’s not good at all
I was 10 or 11 and my parents had to carry me around to hunt for Easter Eggs.
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All USA all the time.
Are they just going to do a half hour digest?
What a rip off!
Everyone is “interested” in his skis
Author
Then presumably a half hour for local news, a half hour recap, and then a repeat of prime time.
Blue marking on the hill. Lots of chattering and bumps
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Only the 2 Americans shown so far.
that is a tough course. Repeating Dr. TMC who is doing his owm commentary. 😉
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I knew it wouldn’t.
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Noon?
At least it’s Curling.
Good run. Suisse now in the lead
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You know, this would be a lot easier to follow if the put up the current skier’s time along with the splits of the time to beat.
But I’m betting that they just want to blow this whole competition off with a half hour soft focus narrative.
MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLES!
This is the BIGGEST RACE IN ALPINE AND YOU’RE JUST GOING TO BLOW IT OFF!?
FOR FIGURE SKATING?!
Prove me wrong.
complains, “internets tell me who wins olympics. no need to actually watch.”
Author
Just competing bios.
This coverage SUCKS!
but not a contender
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13 Minutes.
YOU’RE GOING TO FILL WITH PICTURE OF POLAR BEARS!?
And CRASH COVERAGE?
YOU MEDIA MORONS! YOU LAZY STUPID SONS OF BITCHES!
They hope he’s OK but aren’t saying. This coverage is really horrid
Author
Downhill coverage I’ve ever seen.
Everyone involved from Zucker down should be FIRED!
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All over.
I can’t tell you how pissed off I am right now.
You BLEW your biggest event ASSHOLES!
I HOPE YOU LOSE BILLIONS!
Retweet from Laura Clawson
from Twitter
SamSeder
I got in late, saw the Canadian guy crash, and then interviews with the winners.
That’s it for downhill?
I (shudder) agree with ek. Gosh darn awful!
Thank goodness I caught the vikings and dragons. The polar bears (as usual) pissed me off though.
Quarter Finals Are they live? NOT
which of us won the snow-cross?”
I’m at least enjoying dessert and a very nice bottle of wine, on a very confy bed. A real bed, not a cot. (sigh) my back is loving this.
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Women’s Basketball
Connecticut at Oklahoma.
Now there are plenty of reasons to hate Oklahoma, but I happent to be a big fan of UConn no matter who they’re crushing at the moment.
This thread is for talking about that.
Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity
gettin’ to hear Cris Collinsworth’s “analysis” of the winning margin in the downhill sure makes up for not seeing the downhill.
Sure makes ya think about hummingbirds.
i can do the commentary on pairs fairly well
Not any chance of placing. Classic music one of my favorites Borodin. So far, smooth and well executed performance. Very nice. They are the US champions
Now back tot he snowboarding
2 Americans, a Canadian and Frenchman in the medal Final
Poor ice surface after initial 10 pairs skated warmed up throwing everyone off their training
This is the most disjointed coverage. Now back to Pairs Finak
You would think there wasn’t any competition to watch. This is just really bad
Did well in short program but not medal contenders.
To this day, it still reminds me of Tommie Smith and John Carlos giving the Black Power salute at the ’68 games.
My parents were horrified. I thought it was cool.
Very nice ceremony
1st lift well done. So far nice but not impressive.
from Sam Seder
From KagroX (David Waldman)
how gratuitous of NBC. Grand Canyon Suite is the music.
That fall will cost them but they aren’t “contenders”
Very pretty but not adventurous enough to even get into the top 10
skating to Scheherazade.
Oops that’ll cost points but nice flow after . Good recovery
Death spiral, too slow
Nice throw & One hand lift good but too short
Spins are too slow
Not very enthusiastic, a little mechanical in execution Bland
Music: Love Story. ugh Nothing creative
Another slow “death spiral”
Nice complex spin but, jeez, so slow, No energy
Good execution on the lift
Well, that was it eh
from KagroX
Music: “the way we were” jeez The costumes are as drab as the music
Reigning Canadian champions
Nice jumps good but, lord, the music sucks
missed a standard jump
If the is gets any slower, I’ll fall asleep. Yay something that will make me sleep
These pairs programs are not very daring or even imaginative
From {http://twitter.com/GoldnI GoldnI]
KagroX
response from Karoli
Gold USA Seth Wescott back to back
Canada and France, Silver and Bronze
I guess they need to fill in waiting for the LIVE programs. I shouldn’t complain
….. they are showing us Men’s downhill skiing and I just watched Bode Miller do a run and make a good time here on the Left Coast.
It was pretty warm here today and up in the Sierra.
I can’t believe they have these blue guide lines painted on the ice/snow. I have some depth perception problems in very bright light even with polarized lenses, and usually am watching the people ahead of me so I can tell how steep it is ahead if there’s a lot of glare.
Okay, now the Norwegian has the lead.
Not a good start. Good unison on side by side spins. They look good together
Oops screwed the double axle and a fall. Certainly out of contention.
Good speed on last death spiral spin but not a good performance
Nice execution on the first jump but she doubles the second jump. Good throw.
Another fall. I’m glad I stpped playing that game.
Can this music get duller?
Well done on the lift but I’ve seen better :death spiral’s” at the local rink
Well that final element was good ut damn this is really dull
A little more energy in the ,music..Impossible Dream
Good start. They don’t seem to be keeping pace with the music but that’s not to bad
Man of LA Mancha. OK I’m awake Very nice
Perfect throws Beautifully done.
Spectacular!111
1ast after the short program
Very nice execution on the jumps but the music lacks the energy of the last pair. Very dramatic
Oh mistake on the lift that may cost them
Great throw and last throw was good.
Hard to say. They are the favorites even though they made mistakes.
from KagroX
I will be celebrating tomorrow night but certainly will be reviewing CB’s commentary later. I will be back in NYC late Wednesday so my presence will be sparse for a couple of days, Hopefully back to “normal” by this weekend