Great athletes, in virtually every sport, make difficult athletic feats look easy.
That’s probably why every other year the Olympics takes over our tv and our time, with sports that we otherwise don’t care about, or didn’t even remember existed.
This year, figure skating is one that gets the most prime time coverage. Two things I marvel at are this:
1. how the announcers, and judges, can see such detail in a person spinning around three or so times, as to precisely and instantly know how good it was, or if not, which body part was every so slightly out of alignment. I pretty much wait to see if they fall or not; if not, hey, that was pretty good.
2. the doubles skating. These men are amazing. Just think how much strength it takes to hold even a small-sized woman over your head. Then do it on skates! While moving.
That’s why we watch the Olympics – to see people do things we aren’t capable of ourselves.
On the other hand, I struggle with the sports in which the results are judges’ opinions rather than easy-to-see facts like who got to the finish line first or if the ball went in the hole or not.
Mouth-watering Omaha Steaks
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
Football: not so super Bowl
Oops. The Super Bowl wasn’t very super, not even medium.
Unlike professional wrestling, the one thing the every-second-sponsored league can’t control is how good or bad the game is.
A check back reveals that Denver is no stranger to not only losing Super Bowl games, but losing them badly. In 1987, 1988, and 1990, the Broncos lost by 19, 32, and 45 points respectively.
There were a few other blowout games around those years as well. In the normal NFL game, momentum will often change two or three times. But often in a game with the magnitude of the Super Bowl – all the hype and scrutiny and waiting two weeks for it to finally start – if one teams gets a break and goes on a roll, sometimes it just quickly gets out of control and turns into a nightmare.
Besides the game, this year’s commercials were equally lousy. I conceded early in the third quarter when Denver again came up empty on its first possession of the second half, and turned on re-run of The Mentalist.
Up until then, only the Tim Tebow/no contract commercial even halfway appealed to me. Everything else ranged from bland to outright foolish. The one I was waiting for – the Full House reunion – hadn’t aired yet, so I still haven’t seen it.
Halftime went from rock stars with walkers to at least someone who is currently popular with someone. It was deflating to learn later that Bruno Mars will be in a movie later this year, which tells me his Super Bowl appearance was simply an arranged marketing campaign.
This was confirmed when the game analyst panel spent about a minute talking about Mars and how good the halftime show was. Anything more than a “Yeah, that was good” means it was also paid-for, and that the commentators were forced to comment as such – just another piece in the marketing toolkit.
Best tweet I came across referred to the NFL's tight copyright hold on the words Super Bowl, so that it has to be referred to as "big game," etc.: at least we don't have to call the World Series the "Grand Sequence of Games."
Unlike professional wrestling, the one thing the every-second-sponsored league can’t control is how good or bad the game is.
A check back reveals that Denver is no stranger to not only losing Super Bowl games, but losing them badly. In 1987, 1988, and 1990, the Broncos lost by 19, 32, and 45 points respectively.
There were a few other blowout games around those years as well. In the normal NFL game, momentum will often change two or three times. But often in a game with the magnitude of the Super Bowl – all the hype and scrutiny and waiting two weeks for it to finally start – if one teams gets a break and goes on a roll, sometimes it just quickly gets out of control and turns into a nightmare.
Besides the game, this year’s commercials were equally lousy. I conceded early in the third quarter when Denver again came up empty on its first possession of the second half, and turned on re-run of The Mentalist.
Up until then, only the Tim Tebow/no contract commercial even halfway appealed to me. Everything else ranged from bland to outright foolish. The one I was waiting for – the Full House reunion – hadn’t aired yet, so I still haven’t seen it.
Halftime went from rock stars with walkers to at least someone who is currently popular with someone. It was deflating to learn later that Bruno Mars will be in a movie later this year, which tells me his Super Bowl appearance was simply an arranged marketing campaign.
This was confirmed when the game analyst panel spent about a minute talking about Mars and how good the halftime show was. Anything more than a “Yeah, that was good” means it was also paid-for, and that the commentators were forced to comment as such – just another piece in the marketing toolkit.
Best tweet I came across referred to the NFL's tight copyright hold on the words Super Bowl, so that it has to be referred to as "big game," etc.: at least we don't have to call the World Series the "Grand Sequence of Games."
Saturday, January 11, 2014
TV: 'The Sound of Music'
Yeah, it was over a month ago, but thanks to the wonders of technology (video recording), we no longer have to watch tv programs when they are broadcast; we can watch them on our own schedule (“spare time”).
That means I finally watched NBC’s then-live performance of “The Sound of Music.” Family members kept giving me strange looks and asking “You really like this?”
I struggled with answering because it was both yes and no. Every musical seems to have a superficial story line and hokey dialogue in between characters breaking out into song at odd times. That’s just part of the schtick.
But I guess it was because I knew many of the songs well enough from childhood that kept me watching until the end. The songs were familiar, but I didn’t recall the story line much, especially the Nazi references.
What is it about songs that people want to hear them over and over? A comedian once pointed out that singers can sing the same song for 40 years and everyone thinks it’s great, while comedians have to come up with new material every 15 seconds or they’re duds.
Anyway, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with Sound of Music if the producers hadn’t gotten a famous star – Carrie Underwood – as part of the show. It just seemed to be an appealing mix of old and modern entertainment, enough to get me to record it and watch it, even a few weeks later.
Hopefully, this project was enough of a success that there will be more similar programming.
Alice Cooper in Jesus Christ Superstar? Just a thought.
That means I finally watched NBC’s then-live performance of “The Sound of Music.” Family members kept giving me strange looks and asking “You really like this?”
I struggled with answering because it was both yes and no. Every musical seems to have a superficial story line and hokey dialogue in between characters breaking out into song at odd times. That’s just part of the schtick.
But I guess it was because I knew many of the songs well enough from childhood that kept me watching until the end. The songs were familiar, but I didn’t recall the story line much, especially the Nazi references.
What is it about songs that people want to hear them over and over? A comedian once pointed out that singers can sing the same song for 40 years and everyone thinks it’s great, while comedians have to come up with new material every 15 seconds or they’re duds.
Anyway, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with Sound of Music if the producers hadn’t gotten a famous star – Carrie Underwood – as part of the show. It just seemed to be an appealing mix of old and modern entertainment, enough to get me to record it and watch it, even a few weeks later.
Hopefully, this project was enough of a success that there will be more similar programming.
Alice Cooper in Jesus Christ Superstar? Just a thought.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Sports: getting popped by the cable bubble
I’m not in the right group. I stubbornly refuse to pay for television – either cable or satellite – so I just don’t fit.
Most of the time, free tv over the broadcast airwaves is satisfactory, since I don’t have enough time to watch a lot of sports anyway. But now, with most of the Major League Baseball playoffs only on cable, I’m left on the outside, having to go to someone else’s house, a sports bar, or just track scores online.
Here’s a long but interesting article about the “sports cable bubble.”
To sum it up, a lot of pepole who don’t care at all about sports are being forced to pay for them through their cable packages. You have buy a “bundle” of programming which most likely includes some channels you don’t want. For some people, that is sports.
But by making all those people pay for sports even if they don’t want it, there is so much money coming in that even average professional athletes can earn millions of dollars a year.
It also means that the pay-tv companies are so profitable that they can force more and more programming into a paid-only format, like what is happening with MLB now. Enough people pay, either willingly or through forced bundles, that those like me don’t have many freebies left anymore.
It’s a balancing act for big-time sports to have enough of your product shown free on tv to get enough interest from enough people that enough of them will pay for it so you don’t have to give it away anymore. Unfortunately, the scales are tipping way in their favor right now.
Most of the time, free tv over the broadcast airwaves is satisfactory, since I don’t have enough time to watch a lot of sports anyway. But now, with most of the Major League Baseball playoffs only on cable, I’m left on the outside, having to go to someone else’s house, a sports bar, or just track scores online.
Here’s a long but interesting article about the “sports cable bubble.”
To sum it up, a lot of pepole who don’t care at all about sports are being forced to pay for them through their cable packages. You have buy a “bundle” of programming which most likely includes some channels you don’t want. For some people, that is sports.
But by making all those people pay for sports even if they don’t want it, there is so much money coming in that even average professional athletes can earn millions of dollars a year.
It also means that the pay-tv companies are so profitable that they can force more and more programming into a paid-only format, like what is happening with MLB now. Enough people pay, either willingly or through forced bundles, that those like me don’t have many freebies left anymore.
It’s a balancing act for big-time sports to have enough of your product shown free on tv to get enough interest from enough people that enough of them will pay for it so you don’t have to give it away anymore. Unfortunately, the scales are tipping way in their favor right now.
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