Olympics

Who here is actually watching them? And what did you think of the opening ceremony?

I turn into a full blown Olympics junkie every two years. I just checked my TV listings and got wicked excited when I saw that today's broadcast goes until 1:35am, with only a hour or so break for the news. I won't be leaving my couch for the next 10 hours or so except to eat and poop.

As for the Opening Ceremony, I was underwhelmed. The whole romance thing with the phones and the status updates? So fucking stupid. And what kind of celebration of British culture has no Tolkien, no Monty Python, and only a 1.5 second sound clip representing Doctor Who?

Please tell me you didn't watch the opening ceremony on NBC.

Only way to watch it on TV in the US. I watched the part they cut out afterwards and was angered by NBC's decision to not air it. I then read their excuse for not airing it (it wasn't "tailored for US audiences"), and was absolutely disgusted.

I still can't believe NBC replaced that segment with an interview with Michael Phelps. Every time he opens his mouth all I hear is "Hurr durr I swim fast"

That was their whole reason? They didn't elaborate with examples of why?

Every time he opens his mouth all I hear is "Hurr durr I swim fast"

A fish swims faster and I believe it may have more intelligent discourse during an interview

That was their whole reason? They didn't elaborate with examples of why?

Oh it gets worse. Their refusal to live stream the opening ceremony was because we are apparently too stupid to understand it:
"It was never our intent to live stream the Opening Ceremony or Closing Ceremony. They are complex entertainment spectacles that do not translate well online because they require context, which our award-winning production team will provide for the large prime-time audiences that gather together to watch them."

Now if you actually watched the Opening Ceremony on NBC, you would know that the "context" provided by their award-winning production team was basically Meredith Vieira refusing to shut her fucking mouth the whole time, even though she admitted during the broadcast that in several instances she had no idea who people were or what was going on.

The only good thing to come out of NBC's broadcast of the Opening Ceremony? The commentators using the terms "money shot" and "g-spot", apparently not being aware of their meanings.

I suddenly feel upset I missed that.

And pissed off that everyone who puts stuff to do with the olympics on the internet gets censored by NBC who managed to obtain rights to everything. No idea how one can own rights to the olympics but whatever.

I guess the IOC auctions the rights to broadcast in each country. Over here, the BBC are showing everything, and have set up an extra thirty or so HD channels so that everything can be broadcast, rather than making users go through the red-button menu to choose a sport.

No idea how one can own rights to the olympics but whatever.

An approximately $1.1billion per Olympics payment to the International Olympic Committee is how.

Ironically, countries where no media company bought the rights to air the games get everything live streamed over YouTube. For Free.

Ironically, countries where no media company bought the rights to air the games get everything live streamed over YouTube. For Free.

I'm curious, in the countries that get everything streamed over YouTube for free, do they have to watch advertisements?

i'm curious, in the countries that get everything streamed over youtube for free, do they have to watch advertisements?

everything in that song is just bad luck!

Yes, I think he was pointing out that technically I was using "ironically" incorrectly. Just like the song.

That song just really annoys me. I have a lot of people around me that quote it and don't know it's not irony.

Yah, I get annoyed by it too.

Anyways, back on topic... Quite the medal race between the US and China. I think the US just took the top spot on the medal count back with the US Women's Water Polo gold.

Still not following anything to do with the Olympics :P

Whereas I'm the huge tool that occasionally gets teary watching the national anthem when the US wins Gold.

I just watched something where Canada was throwing kicks at Russia. Russia clearly wasn't drunk enough during the competition because he lost.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ol...icle-1.1134327

Do you guys think this is a political statement? I'm undecided.

I can see where the IOC is coming from. They've tried very hard to keep those kinds of statements separate from the Olympics. The Argentinian government specifically told it's athletes not to comment about the Falklands Islands, and the IOC has gotten very forceful about athletes from Arab nations (Iran specifically) forfeiting matches against Israeli athletes. In their eyes, this situation is exactly what they want to avoid happening during the Olympics.