Vancouver Olympics

[sbzar]

I watched a fair amount of the Olympics, especially the hockey games. There were a lot of truly great commercials aired. All just very patriotic, supporting the Olympics, celebratings the country, ra-ra-Canada types, not overtly selling anything

Comments

[tigerlily0484]

Canadians: doing it with class. ;)

(Unlike the Australian commentators, who wholly and completely embarassed my country with their crap coverage and homophobic comments, and totally turned me off all things free-to-air Olympics)

Shame, really, because I really wanted to know what the point of that 'curling' thing is.

[sbzar]

The Canadian stations, news, etc type people usually do a great job with everything. I was also really impressed with the networks - CTV was the main channel but events also aried on TSN and Sportsnet and the integration was really good. IE, one network was always telling you what events were starting up on other networks.

Ohh, curling. I have a strong appreciation for the sport. Initially you look at it and think boring (well, most people do) but after you watch it... I don't know. Something about the straegy of it appeals to me. Bascially the point (I;m assuimg it was a serious question) is to get your rocks as close to the button (the very centre of the coloured rings) as possible. But you have to set up guards and stuff so it's not as easy/simple as it sounds.

[tigerlily0484]

So it's like... lawn ice bowling? Huh.

[sbzar]

Well... if lawn bowling is anything like real bowling, I don't think it's that great of a comparison.

There's a lot of physics involved in curling. You're sliding 40lb granite stones down a sheet of ice at varying speeds and trying to knock your opponent's rocks out of the scoring area while not touching your own. Once you have three or more stones around the button and a few guards set up it's so interesting to watch the shots they make (and miss).

The Canadian curlers are pretty much the best.. well, the men's team, the women's team wasn't that great at the Olympics, they got silver but the skip had two chances to get gold and screwed them up. But I digress.

It's definitely a sport you actually have to watch a bit of to understand and see the appeal. To just glance at it I imagine most people think "boring" and "pfft, I could do that." Umm... try. Please. It would be hilarious.

[tigerlily0484]

Lawn bowls =/= tenpin bowls. Just for the record. Imagine curling, on a grassy surface, with balls closer to 2kg.

I'd take up that challenge (it does sound pretty hilarious), but... we don't really do ice here. :)