I had a few moments to spare and tomorrow looks like it might end up rather busy so I figured I'd post my weekly blog a day early.
Television: The Olympics
DUH!!! The Olympics are the only sports I'll actually sit down and watch. I prefer the Winter Olympics but the Summer ones rock as well. (That said, I may be one of the few women in the world who doesn't really care about either ice skating or gymnastics, but I'll watch 'em anyway.) The opening ceremonies last night were amazing! China really outdid itself. My favs were the drums and the little kids, but the choice for the kids to hand the flag off to the military folks was an interesting one. My big complaint, however, is for whomever was in charge of NBC's broadcast. All those stupid aerial shots were seriously annoying me. I get that there's a big LCD parchment screen on the ground; I wanted to see what the people were doing on that screen. Also, Matt Lauer totally annoys the crap out of me. But then, I'm not someone who needs mindless prattle over my Olympics. Overall I was very pleased. Now on to beach volleyball and swimming! (And anything else that's on either NBC or USA.)
Film: X-Files
I went to see my old friends Mulder and Scully last week. If you haven't gone to see it yet, it is very much like a non-alien, non-conspiracy episode, which is a very nice change from the last couple of seasons of the show. The big reason you'll want to go see it is to find out whether or not Mulder and Scully are a couple. I'm not giving anything away. It wasn't a movie I really needed to pay $6 to see (although I enjoyed it). If you're a fan of the show, you'll enjoy the nostalgia factor and the ending (stay through the credits). I'm not telling you to run out and pay money to see, but definitely put the film on your Netflix list.
Book: Wild Seed
I finally got around to reading my first Octavia Butler novel and it was amazing. I promised MG I wouldn't give anything away so don't worry, there are no spoilers here. The short, short summary is that a 4,000-year-old being, Doro, partakes in genetic experiments by breeding people with superhuman and telekinetic abilities. Eventually, he stumbles on the 300-year-old Anyanwu, a healer and shapeshifter. Together, they impact the world in a truly unique way, as well as each other. There are some seriously angering moments when you just want to throttle Doro. You'll feel sorry for Anyanwu at several points in the novel. Plus, it's difficult to respect Isaac but even more difficult to dislike him. Butler is a truly gifted and unique storyteller. I plan on savoring all of her books because, as some of you know, she has died before her time. My next Butler novel is Fledgling and if it's half as brilliant as Wild Seed, it will be a wondrous experience.
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8 comments:
what??? Matt Lauer annoys you?? Me likey some Matt-ie!! I'll stop watching the Today show if they get rid of Matt Lauer. Meredith can leave tomorrow, I wouldn't even notice. I thought Ann Curry should have gotten the co-host job.
Regarding Women's gymnastics: have you ever noticed how fake and phoney these little girls are to each other. They hug after EVERY freakin' event (and there's always a camera right there to capture it) and sometimes they completely ignore each other. I guess it's because they are ultimately competing against each other for the All-around medal and individual events. It's weird; they're on the same team but sort of not really.
Bob Costas is a total tool.
That is all I have to say :)
What really annoys me about the gymnasts is how they look. They look like mini-Hulks. I know that's awful to say but they look rather freakish with those muscles. (The female swimmers do too at times!) And yeah, they certainly can be fake at times.
Bob Costas annoyed me with his interview with George Bush last night. I have to say that despite not liking Bush as a president, I am impressed with his Olympics attendance. (And that's enough about politics on my blog.) Costas asks him one question about the Olympics and then launches into 10 minutes on politics. It's the Olypics for goodness sake! Stick with Bush's opinions on the athletes and leave politics out of it for 17 freakin' days!!!!!!
Matt Lauer and Bob Costas need to do a steel cage death match.
Great quote from Michael Caine BTW.
I think the Olympics are the perfect spot for Bush. He's a great cheerleader. It's just a shame he has had real responsibilities too! (Honestly, I think at this point, in his mind, he's "done" and would really rather just be watching swimming.)
I have to admit, I'm not an Olympics watcher, although I did go back and watch the web video of Phelps and the relay race. I have a hard time watching the Olympics and reconciling my views of China at the same time. Watching China glorify itself during the Olympics (especially the opening ceremony), and expecting the world to ignore its human rights and environmental records (and so much else)...it's just sort of disgusting to me.
I'm not all that familiar with Bob Costas. However, he was a panelist on "Real Time with Bill Maher" this past year, and his knowledge and discussion of politics and world events was extremely impressive.
I think that's the problem the world is having with China. You want to be supportive of the athletes and enjoy the two weeks when the world can come together for a good cause, but you still know that after it's over things will go back to being the way they were. How many people are talking about Georgia and Russia right now? That could easily escalate into a massacre and how many people know much about it? Very few because we're all focused on Michael Phelps (Did you see his race last night? He destroyed his old record; it was amazing.), women's beach volleyball, and Chinese gymnasts. The Olympics are definitely an exercise in sleight of hand but, that said, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. How often do we really get the chance to cheer on water polo?
PS - If Chicago gets the 2016 Summer games, I'm seriously contemplating trying to attend.
I have no problems with the Olympics themselves, and I think the IOC did a good thing by choosing China. They wanted China to bring itself up to par by 2008, and that was honorable. But it backfired and there was no alternative--they couldn't shift the Olympics to a different country when China brought itself "up to par" in questionable ways. China steamrolled over human rights in order to build all their pavilions and make Beijing impressive; plus, they didn't work on their environmental issues until the very last minute! (That smog behind Brian Williams on Nightly News last Thursday night was horrifying!)
Actually, I think the Russia/Georgia conflict is getting covered very well. It's been the main story on the CNN homepage for a couple days now. I heard this morning that an estimated 2,000 people are dead--that will probably go up, unfortunately. What I find funny is how the Bush administration keeps putting out statements like "Georgia is a sovereign nation, Russia had no right to invade it." Yeah....like we've never done THAT. :-) Many people here thought our motives were right too, just like the Russians do.
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