…we gather on our couches and enjoy the spectacle of U.S. athletes getting hosed at the Olympic games. The latest examples are Alicia Sacramone (Chinese valuter FALLS TO HER KNEES on the landing, yet still edges Sacramone for the bronze) and Nastia (man, what were her parents thinking when they gave her that name?) Liukin doing an equally difficult parallel bars program to the Chinese gymnast — and clearly doing it with fewer faults — yet ending up tied, and losing a byzantine tie-breaker system to end up with silver.
Seriously, would we even watch the Olympics if it weren’t for these predictable screw jobs? And don’t give me the argument that it’s just a case of ethno-centrism and pro-U.S. bias that causes me to see these things. We all see them; the world sees them. It’s happening to other countries, too, but we don’t notice it because NBC is covering sports and athletes that the U.S. has a vested interest in. But don’t forget the Canadian pairs skaters that got jobbed so badly that they threw out a bunch of judges and revamped the figure skating scoring system.
That’s what needs to happen in Olympic gymnastics now. Review the tapes, get rid of the awful judges who seem to want to blame U.S. athletes for their hatred of George Bush, and fix the scoring system so two athletes who were scored equally high can share the medal they each earned. Either that, or toss all sports with subjective judging out of the Games. That’s right — no gymnastics, no diving, no figure skating, no halfpipe, nothing with music, nothing with sequins. If you can’t judge it honestly and correctly, don’t do it at all. Keep baseball and softball; at least those sports have rules and a scoreboard that spectators can understand, even if the umps aren’t much better than gymnastics judges.
[While writing this, I was listening to Everything But The Girl's cover of "The Only Living Boy in New York" by Simon & Garfunkel. Sweet stuff.
Everything But The Girl "The Only Living Boy in New York", 1996 (Paul Simon)
Soul Survivors, "Expressway to Your Heart," 1967 (Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff)
Then a nice jump to “Expressway to Your Heart” by the Soul Survivors, a song we did in my high school band, which performed every good song by the Rascals, as well as the songs that sounded like they were done by the Rascals, like this one.
Wrapped up this session with “Willow Weep For Me” by Frank Sinatra off his “Only The Lonely” album, 1958. I think I like the Chad & Jeremy version better — not quite so forlorn, a bit more wistful. But Nelson Riddle sure knew how to paint a mood with sound…
Frank Sinatra, "Willow Weep For Me," 1958 (Ann Ronell)
Tags: Alicia Sacramone, Everything But The Girl, Frank Sinatra, Nastia Liukin, Olympic gymnastics judges, Soul Survivors
