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snoozeville 2006
February 24th, 2006congrats to shizuka arakawa but with all due respect, you shouldn’t have received a gold medal last night. cohen and slutskaya skated passionate but ultimately flawed programs, so im not suggesting they should have won instead. but if skating a program like yours, clean on the technical elements, but DOA when it came to close to any idea of “artistry”, skating as we know it totally over, thanks to the NJS. at the very least, your outfit was fascinating, like two different dresses hacked apart and sewn together but still, fashion should never make up for a totally dullsville performance.
February 25th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Yeah, the beautiful Italian should’ve won!
Also, how does Slutskaya’s music fit in to your overall belief about ice skating aesthetic cliches? It wasn’t “Living La Vida Loca,” nor was it Santana, but it was much better than endless streams of Andrew Lloyd Webber choking eustachian tubes in the Italian Alps.
I’m glad Arakawa won. This Olympics, like so many, violated every advertising gurus expectations - Bode Miller, Lindsey Jacobellis, pretty much anyone Visa or Nike or whomever harnessed their hopes to failed to achieve the proverbial Wheaties box of capitalism.
In fact, I’m pretty pleased with most outcomes of the games. This was the first Olympics I watched diligently since ‘92, when our hockey team (the last of the amateurs and semi-pros!) managed to eke out a tin medal for fourth.
This year, the pros didn’t even get that close. As amateur sports are more corporatized and syndicated and branded, I think that these Olympics offered a lovely question mark. The nostalgia and excitement have been diluted a bit due to developments like the information highway, etc., but it was really nice to not worry about what might be on t.v. and just find steady entertainment for a couple weeks.
But could someone please silence the talking heads during the artistic performances on ice? Not everyone can be Al Michaels!