The IOC is barring athletes from blogging. Behold as another of last century's obsolete institutions confronts advancing technology by fighting it. They should have an Olympic event for swimming upstream.
After many weeks of anticipation I finally got out to see Fahrenheit 9/11 recently. With one article or another about this movie hitting the "top stories" page on Google News every day for weeks on end, I felt like I'd be missing something if I didn't give it a look.
The executive summary is that it's an OK movie. It started out well, got a little weak and lost direction toward the middle, and then solidified while getting a little weepy toward the end. Overall a thumbs up, but more for the information content than the presentation, which was just OK.
When I compare it to Bowling for Columbine, the film doesn't measure up. Bowling was an interesting, solid, funny film. Fahrenheit 9/11 scores lower in most ways, except hype and controversy.
I already had a pretty low opinion of Mr. Bush, so this film didn't shift it one way or the other, although even if I was a supporter of Mr. Bush, I don't know if I would have been swayed enough to change my vote.
Hey, I've got an idea. Why not toss out this whole archaic "nations" concept and simply have Coke, Nike and their corporate ilk field teams that would battle for Olympic gold.
I am absolutely, utterly disgusted by this report (which I read about on BoingBoing) that spectators at the Olympics -- some of whom will have paid hundreds of dollars for their tickets -- might be turned away if they if they are wearing a T-shirt with a logo from one of the games' sponsors' competitors, or are drinking the wrong brand of bottled water (i.e. not the Coke-owned brand).
I'm speechless. For me, the Olympics have become less and less palatable over the years because of all the commercialism and the sensational reporting about doping and cheating scandals. I always appreciated the ideals that the Olympics supposedly represent, but it's increasingly clear that nobody actually involved with the Olympics cares about anything except selling shoes and soda.
Forget it. I'm not watching this manufactured corporate event this time around.