Of course, that's nothing new. As far back as Lillehammer in '94, I remember being GLUED to the television from the opening ceremonies to the heart-breaking conclusion of the closing ceremonies. I mean, let's be honest, making a 9-year-old wait 4 YEARS until the next worldwide ginormous sporting event is pretty brutal.
Even Christmas comes every 12 months!
And that just gets worse as you get older, because there are those years when you're working or travelling or whatever, and you just straight up miss a whole set of the games. Like 2004. I don't remember Athens at all. Why is that?
Oh right. I was slaving away 16 hour days at the Barn. Right.
So I'm very thankful I'm in Japan right now, and that we have televisions backstage since most of the competitions air live during the morning here. It's so much better than on tour when I'd RUN to my hotel room and pray I would make it in time to see Evan Lysacek skate.
I'm also thankful I don't have to watch the Olympics on NBC, which I'm now realizing is an evil, evil, EVIL monopoly on the airwaves. Um, seriously... with DVR and all that jazz, why do you INSIST on tape-delaying EVERYTHING when people can just find out via Yahoo online the second it happens? RUDE. If it's that crucial to show in primetime, just REPEAT it. Seriously.
You think half the people who were at the office all day are really gonna be bothered that you're showing them something that happened a few hours earlier when they couldn't watch anyway? Cuz they could watch it on DVR or find out online if they are really dying to know.
AND... if it's that fierce, like some things have been already, people will want to SEE IT AGAIN. DUHHHHHHHH.
But stifling the people who ARE home when the events ARE live... that's just frakkin rude, dude.
WTF, NBC, WTF?
My point is, Japan rocks because they show events live, there aren't commercials on NHK so you see every second of the action live, they have multiple channels airing different events so you can watch what you want to watch and not miss anyone, they don't throw product placement in your face, AND they repeat the big events later at night in case you missed them.
WOW. How frakkin' hard is THAT, NBC? Japan is STUFFING you, and using your footage to boot.
Sucks to be you. Especially once Must-See-TV ended.
Anyway, I'm obsessed. I'm sure everyone remembers Beijing and how we all didn't SLEEP for 2 weeks. I was staying up till all hours of the morning watching events and then going to work at 7 AM at the bank. Retarded. And AWESOME.
Now, I watch everything on TV with Japanese commentators (luckily they show the English transcriptions of results, etc.) and then read all about everything on the internet later to make sure I didn't miss anything. And again, I'm on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE WORLD in a country that doesn't have as much pull in the Olympics as the US, and I'm still getting better coverage than NBC's monopoly.
And it's awesome, because I'm pretty international right now, so I get excited when Canada or Japan or Australia or my US homeboys, or heck, anybody who does a bang-up job, wins. It's awesome.
And I don't care if it wasn't Beijing's spectacle, the ice floes breaking apart was one of the most magical things I've ever seen and the modern/Alberta Ballet dancers dancing to Sarah MacLachlan was riveting and heart-breakingly beautiful. I don't care if the torch didn't work.
Cuz Vancouver rocks. And that's only been shown by the AMAZING Chinese pairs skaters, the women's moguls surprise winner, the Koreans committing speed-skating suicide, and Canada's first gold at home.
Heck, even the bad news has been riveting and breath-taking.
And I'm obsessed. Which happens every couple of years in alternating seasons.
Good luck trying to drag me away.
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