Not too much to say with this one, but I suppose I’ll title it “Birthday Edition” for dramatic effect. I mean, I’ll probably hit “post” very slightly in the a.m., so technically… lol.
I guess wanted to say in a general way that the modern Olympics experience is nice because it seems to be a vacation in a self-contained living room, or even bedroom, experience. Or even better- a vacation without the hassles or expense of travel.
This thought struck me even before everything. It hit me during the Pre-Show Show, The Opening Ceremony Ceremony, that odd little Red Carpet thing in the museum with Shaun White, Marisa Tomei and Jeff Goldblum, as well as my always-slightly-out-of-place Gracie Gold. It seemed awfully… packaged. During the festivities indoors I noticed out of the corner of my eye a doorman move out of place of the cameras who had to be hurriedly shooed into the correct position, amusingly. He walked outside to greet someone too early. He had to be walked back in so then he could walk back out all natural like for a different camera angle from the outside of the museum.
The guards standing outside the museum seemed almost painfully photogenic, too. They looked almost catwalk model-like, and decidedly not like typical rent-a-cops. The guests arrived one at a time, interestingly. It was all very… paced. Not of it was impromptu, even the “casual” conversation picked up by the cameras.
Well, I guess that’s to be expected ofc.
I did get a laugh out of the Gargoyles-esque street toughs that were let in as a group.
When I noticed Stanley Tucci I perked up a bit at the confirmed Italian theme and kept my eyes peeled for any wandering Maranos in the vicinity. Alas, ’twas not to be, although they did have two impersonators. The real Princess Laura was however playacting Italian café on Insta around the time, tho, if that means anything.
Well… I’m really off track here.
Ok, back to the thing… it’s a vacation, right? Best seat in the house, always, every event, all the time. You get to see EVERYTHING, every piece of whatever you want, I mean you get to see even the training rooms for fuck’s sake! You can see the skaters for example do their warm up routines, see them do their stretches, jog around, see them ride exercise bikes- a month’s subscription to Peacock Prime or whatever they call it will give you a better viewing experience than any all access pass that the Olympics itself can give you, I mean if that is even offered. You get up close during the medal ceremonies, you can interact with the crowd, I mean I literally am having telepathic fun with the athletes during their practice sessions on the ice! Starbucks even made a commercial out of it! So fucking cool.
This is a far far better experience than ANY conventional two week vacation than I can possibly imagine.
There is no way, no chance anything on God’s Earth could possibly compare to this.
Besides, this is something that I can do with my family that does NOT involve politics, which is immensely refreshing. I really despised NBC cutting into the Olympics coverage with that 10 minutes of stupidity involving some “Breaking News” of some “Lead” in some such nonsense or other. How ludicrous.
I’m not going to comment too much on the Ice Dancing result; I am not a good judge of that sport for a myriad of reasons, the most important of which is that I have never done it myself. I thought all three teams who medaled were good. I loved the Canadian duo very much. Something there really moved me. I loved the Americans. In both cases you could feel the experience they shared together as a team. I thought the French were very good technically but lacking in some kind of emotional chemistry.
But I am not a judge, take that as it is.
I’m not going to comment further. It’s after midnight and I need to sleep.
Ah yes- one more thing- it is very nice indeed seeing Italy do so well in these games! Well done guys!