Blackened Sun

More Coverage of the Olympics, PLEASE!

So, it’s the Winter Olympics! Are you excited? I know I am. I’m actually most excited for Curling, Alpine Skiing, and Speed Skating…

Which brings up an interesting concern I’m seeing more and more with the olympics. NBC’s coverage. NBC has mentioned a few times that they’re losing money, and viewers during their coverage of the Vancouver 2010 olympics this year. And I feel like they’re not covering enough of the events. I mean, the Olympics is much larger than the portion they cover during primetime, or in the few other channels that show coverage sporadically. I’m sure there’s plenty of Americans that want to watch events that actually don’t involve a medal-contender US Athlete.

For instance, I was watching curling a little bit this afternoon, with USA playing Germany. USA lost 7-5, and most of the other curling events were done, except for the Canadian team, facing Norway, and the game was tied 6-6 heading into Extra Ends… Close, and had to be exciting to watch… But they didn’t cover it and instead went into 15 minutes of talking and commercials… Time they could’ve spent covering the curling match.

That lack of coverage is what frustrates me. And my friend Jose and I were talking a little last night about what they could do to enhance coverage, and perhaps enhance even their profit…

Why isn’t there an Olympic “Premium” network for times like these? Similar to MLB Extra Innings, or the NFL Network. I would love to see something like 5 channels playing 24/7 coverage of the Olympics when they happen. That would be incredible. Even have an online version so you can login with your same account to watch it online if you’re not near a computer.

That’d be just plain perfect. Do it just like MLB.TV currently has… pay a certain fee for the “Season” (in this case, the 2-3 weeks of Olympics every 2 years), and you’d get access to 24/7 coverage. That shouldn’t be hard to maintain at all, no? Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

This way, you can cover CERTAIN events that you know that your mainstream viewers would like to watch (like USA vs Canada hockey, and Figure Skating), but any of the olympic fans that want more than that, can pay for it. It’s a small fee (I don’t know, 40-50 bucks?)

Hell, personally, I wouldn’t even care if there were announcers or not. Atleast show me the game statistics on the screen. But that’s a personal preference that I’m sure not many others would stand by. I just suggest the lack of announcers as an attempt to cut down on production costs.

Is this too far fetched of an idea? Would you be willing to pay for “premium” access to the Olympics?

Premium Coverage counts as this:

• 24/7 Channels (I’m thinking atleast 3 of them would be required)
• Access to ALL events online (so if the event/match you want to watch doesn’t fit into one of the channel slots, you can still watch it online)

Again, I think this is completely reasonable and far from unachievable.

And there is another plus to this whole thing: Your current audience. The one that doesn’t care about the olympics and is disappointed that their “regularly scheduled programming” disappeared for the next 2 weeks? They don’t need to worry about that ANYWHERE near as much as they do now, as NBC would be taking over their main networks for coverage of the Olympics far less.

Is there any restrictions that the IOC place on this kind of solution? The only thing that I could think of as to why NBC hasn’t done this yet is if perhaps they’ve been told the olympics must be free to everyone, in the spirit of the Olympic games being for everyone.

What do you think? What do you KNOW that I don’t and that I need to learn? Give me some comments!

Fashion, Politics, and Absurdity

Wow… honestly? How does Fashion fit into politics? I always figured that the changes Obama was doing with the country, with his recent attempts at health reform, energy reform, the closing of Guantanamo Bay, Iran, etc etc, would be far more important than what he wore to dinner with Michelle the other night.

Don’t they have anything better to do with their time than bitch and moan when they see Obama wearing “mom jeans” while throwing the first pitch at the 2009 All Star game? [source]

The president also offered some insights into his self-admitted lack of sartorial expertise.

“Up until a few years ago, I only had four suits,” the commander-in-chief said.

“I hate to shop. Those jeans are comfortable. And for those of you who want your president to look great in his tight jeans, I’m sorry. I’m not the guy,” Obama added.

Obama’s jeans choice for his all-start game appearance were widely panned by fashion critics and even dubbed “mom jeans.”

I’m glad he can make fun of himself for it though, or at least defend himself and say “I don’t give a shit about what people think when it comes to what I wear”… but in much nicer verbiage. He SHOULD wear what’s comfortable. He is in THE toughest job in the nation, and should be capable of the small things that relieve him in the slightest of the stress that is the Presidency.

I can’t believe that people actually complain about what the President of the United States is wearing. I’m actually rather curious, does this happen elsewhere in the world as badly as it does in America? I’ll have to bug some of my international friends to answer this for me.

I don’t tend to notice the fashion police in politics, usually, as I just don’t follow politics enough. However, I was very into the last election, and I’m anxious to see how Obama does his first term in office. I really don’t want him to fail because that would mean devastation to the United States. But when I try to load the news to find out about his latest actions, and I see articles left and right bashing (or praising) the clothes that Obama and the First Lady wear, or the fact that he bowed for the Saudi king was “bad” (unlike respectful as I perceived him as being)… that is just absurd.

I must add this – out of everything PETA may have to complain about, and try to fight for, they decide to call Obama out on killing a FLY?? [source] I know that little bit is old news, but I still find myself shaking my head and going “wtf?” when I think about it or talk about it. I mean, PETA goes to extraordinary lengths ALL the time.

Slightly off topic, I honestly think that PETA should give up their extreme stance to a point. Take “everyone should be a vegetarian,” for an example. Sure, I can understand them arguing for it, but obviously it’s not going to be an easy thing to change. So why not try eliminating the treatment of cows that is currently happening for those massive caged farms for milk and beef? Why not advocate “if you can’t stop eating meat, at the LEAST treat the animals right, and only buy organic, grass fed [etc etc]“… I mean, that would appeal to a larger audience, and they would be able to make (a certain percentage of) their goal (of achieving global vegetarianism) a bit easier to accomplish.

So… Fashion: Stay the hell out of politics and start paying attention to what matters when it comes to politics, alright? What the President or First Lady (or anyone really) wear has NOTHING to do with how they perform their job!

Celebrity Deaths and News

We are really far too obsessed with celebrities. They are just another person, and they shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other human.

I’ve seen more than enough news over the past 5 years of celebrities being involved in cases where they’re sent to court, and yet somehow get away with miniscule sentences. They’re given second chances too easily in comparison to those who don’t have the money, or the popularity. It shows a flaw in our court system. Michael Jackson is an example of this. As is Michael Vick, and even in part Martha Stewart, and Paris Hilton.

Well, this whole post is due to the recent burst of sudden celebrity deaths we’ve had across the board. I think that yes, it is sad. But again, people die all the time, and these celebrities are not and have never been close to 90% of the population that idolizes them and is mourning over their deaths (Michael Jackson in particular, of course).

I’m sick and tired of hearing all of these news reports, montages, radio stations playing his songs nonstop… They’re getting on my nerves because what makes HIS death any more special than the thousands that die a day? Hell, allegedly  the guy even abused little kids (see: bought his way out of it). He shouldn’t be treated as such an “amazing person.”

I just feel that celebrities shouldn’t be getting such massive headline topic takeovers on major news sites, and elsewhere, when there are more important things to be concerned about.

The perfect example would be back when Britney Spears broke up with Kevin Federline. I was sent a link from my friend Patrick, leading me simply to the CNN home page. On the page was, in the bright red “emergency must know this” Breaking News bar up on the top of the page, in a large font, was “Britney and K-Fed Break Up”… Why, for the love of God, was that “breaking news” and considered more important than anything else happening (like Darfur, the War in Iraq, etc etc)?? At the MOST, I think, that article should’ve possibly made it on the front page of the site and a top article placement on the Entertainment page (definitely, since that’s a celebrity section, basically). I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I /facepalm’d immediately.

This obsession with Celebrities has GOT to stop.

USA at the FIFA Confederations Cup

So, let’s start with this: I feel really uninformed about this topic, and yet, I want to talk about it… so don’t mind the flaws. In fact, please correct me!

I am of the opinion that the United States does not have a good soccer team. We have a poorly organized Major League Soccer division, with horrendous attendance levels (compared to other sports in the United States). A quick search shows the United States’ MLS attendance level of 2005-06 was roughly half of that of the English Premiership and the Spanish La Liga [source]. I even feel that our players are no where near on par with the rest of the world’s national teams.

It is just surprising at how much the rest of the world loves FOOTBALL, and yet, the United States trails so far behind. What caused this in the first place? I remember playing in Youth Soccer in the early 90’s, and it was very popular, or so it seemed to me.j

Anyways, back on topic. I am always surprised to see the United States qualify so easily for different tournaments (like the World Cup). I just feel that the team is so mediocre that I don’t see how they actually make it to these competitions. And even when they make it to the tournaments, I’m even more surprised if they manage to make it past the Group Stage…

A perfect example of this is the FIFA Confederations Cup, which is happening right now. I checked up on the wiki entry to make sure I understood how teams are chosen. For those that don’t know, 6 teams are chosen by being the respective winner in their regional divisions, followed by the most recent World Cup Champion (Italy) and the Host Team (South Africa).

United States, South Africa, Spain, and Brazil made it past the Group Stage. The first Semi final game was played yesterday (United States vs Spain), and the second one will be today at 2:30 EST.

However, yesterday, United States shocked me (like always), by beating Spain, 2-0. We’re talking about a couple of the greatest teams out there (Spain and Brazil), both of which have a very impressive player list for the competition. What in the world happened to Spain to let them lose to the United States out of all teams? A friend of mine suggests that Spain wasn’t focused on this game as they were more concerned with a future opponent (Brazil) if they face each other in the final.

Really, just answer me this: Am I wrong about my impression of the United States National Football Team? Are they actually capable of truly being a good team on the World Stage, even though MLS is far from the spotlight in American minds?

Short of David Beckham, you never hear of players actually interested in playing for MLS (atleast, in major news, I guess?). Meanwhile, overseas, teams are constantly trading players from all across the world. Players from La Liga and Spain playing in the Premiership, and vice versa. Meanwhile MLS sits there, stagnating from not having any real competition.