Olympics and Television
For better or worse (probably worse), we've had the television on more than usual over the past week. The Olympics have been on, and it has been fun to watch the different sports. I especially enjoyed the snowboard cross event (I think that's what it's called), which I guess is new for this Olympics. I didn't think new events could possibly be any good, but this one is!
Here are a few (frank) observations I have made from watching the Olympics:
1. Yep, there are still some pretty bad commercials, even during prime family-viewing time (most of the bad ones are for other shows, it seems).
2. What has happened to men's figure skating? It seemed like at least half of the male skaters wore girly outfits (flounces, sequins in pastel colors, ruffles, etc.) and majored in "gracefulness". What's up with that?
3. The drama in the men's 1000 meter speed skating event between Chris Hedrick and Shani Davis was very entertaining. The interview with a lady NBC reporter Shani gave after he won the medal was priceless. I wish I had a tape of that. What a hoot! I noticed in his next interview after the medal ceremony NBC had an African-American male interview him. I wonder what that was all about? I guess they thought that would make him "open up" a little more or something.
4. I don't like those pants the lady skiers/snowboarders are wearing. They look so...droopy, and masculine. But I guess that's the style. Two words: UH GLEE.
5. I think the normal broadcast schedule is something like 5 minutes of sports, 2 minutes of commercials, 5 minutes cutesy human interest story or interview with the same old questions (what did it feel like, what were you thinking, etc.), 2 minutes of commercials, and so on. So out of 14 minutes of broadcast time, approximately 5 minutes of that is actually the sports.
I read an interesting series on a blog this week about television. It's long, but worth the read. We need to do better on keeping our tv viewing to a minimum. We don't watch a lot of broadcast tv, but videos and dvd's are very tempting to put on, and it's easy to get into a habit that becomes hard to break. Sometimes I wonder if we would be better off without a tv in our home. Other times, I think it makes some pretty interesting blogging material.
Here are a few (frank) observations I have made from watching the Olympics:
1. Yep, there are still some pretty bad commercials, even during prime family-viewing time (most of the bad ones are for other shows, it seems).
2. What has happened to men's figure skating? It seemed like at least half of the male skaters wore girly outfits (flounces, sequins in pastel colors, ruffles, etc.) and majored in "gracefulness". What's up with that?
3. The drama in the men's 1000 meter speed skating event between Chris Hedrick and Shani Davis was very entertaining. The interview with a lady NBC reporter Shani gave after he won the medal was priceless. I wish I had a tape of that. What a hoot! I noticed in his next interview after the medal ceremony NBC had an African-American male interview him. I wonder what that was all about? I guess they thought that would make him "open up" a little more or something.
4. I don't like those pants the lady skiers/snowboarders are wearing. They look so...droopy, and masculine. But I guess that's the style. Two words: UH GLEE.
5. I think the normal broadcast schedule is something like 5 minutes of sports, 2 minutes of commercials, 5 minutes cutesy human interest story or interview with the same old questions (what did it feel like, what were you thinking, etc.), 2 minutes of commercials, and so on. So out of 14 minutes of broadcast time, approximately 5 minutes of that is actually the sports.
I read an interesting series on a blog this week about television. It's long, but worth the read. We need to do better on keeping our tv viewing to a minimum. We don't watch a lot of broadcast tv, but videos and dvd's are very tempting to put on, and it's easy to get into a habit that becomes hard to break. Sometimes I wonder if we would be better off without a tv in our home. Other times, I think it makes some pretty interesting blogging material.
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