After having the once in a lifetime opportunity to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics in China, I caught a bit of the Olympic bug so to speak. Enough so that I was awake at 4:00 am this morning to listen to Barack and Michelle Obama throw in their pitch for Chicago. There was one line I thought rang true to my experience of meeting people from all over the world in Beijing.
Continue reading "Quotable: All Eyes On Copenhagen and Chicago 2016" »
A guest post by Kristin who spent yesterday running through scenic Philadelphia.
Distance running isn't really a sport that lends itself to tailgating; Clif bars don't have the allure of, say, cheesesteaks. But what the crowd at yesterday's ING Philadelphia Distance Run lacked in body fat and tattoos, they made up for in Rocky-like spirit and the kind of blisters that can only be produced by hitting the pavement for 13.1 miles.
More than 15,000 runners looped through Center City and the Schuylkill trail, including a man in a cape, a man in a kilt and my personal favorite, an older gentlemen sporting a t-shirt that read "Still Jive at 75."
The race started at Eakins Oval and ended at the steps of the Art Museum, leading many finishers to temporarily abandon their exhaustion and sprint up the stairs, fists pumping. Even after logging 13.1 miles, that shit never gets old.
High school girls.
For real. My 12-hour flight from Seoul, Korea to LAX was straight out of a nightmare scene in a Judd Apatow movie. Only worse than anything he could imagine. I swear I'm not embellishing in the least when I tell you these two high school juniors played "tickle each other" for the better part of three hours. Like, WTF is wrong with you people. When they weren't tickling each other and elbowing me in the head as I tried to watch Drillbit Taylor and The Bank Job in peace, they were talking about how Jimmy is kinda cute but texts her too much. Plus, with all of the distractions from swimming practice, SATs, their parents, etc., she just might not have time for Jimmy. Also, Robbie is cuter!
Holy shit balls.
If anything, this most miserable of 12-hour flight rides did bring me to one enlightening realization: all women were once 15 year old girls.
And with that, I'm back in the U.S. of A. I missed this place and you guys. Big ups to Matt, Kulp, Dan, Clare, Chamo, and all for keeping this place entertaining. You guys rock.
I will probably now retire from blogging, because, well... I'm a frontrunner and the Phillies aren't in first.
As many of you may know, I'm in China. That is a couple of miles away from the Delaware Valley. I hit up the China vs. Spain game on Tuesday and tried to track down the Redeem Team this evening to no avail. Despite my hopes to buy Chris Paul a glass of "Sing Sao" as it sounds, I did get to hang out with the incredible Dan Steinberg of D.C. Sports Bog.
Agent Steinz was in search of team U.S.A. hanging out at a club in Beijing but he had to settle for the common folk telling him a story or two.
Dan's camera work is severely lacking but this shortcoming made up for in his ability to quote random drunk people with interesting tales to tell.
A video demonstrating China's ability to cheer on their hometown squad below (note: this video did not upload in time for this posting. look for it in a subsequent post. Blame Canada).
Read Dan's recap of part of my evening at D.C. Sports Bog here.
I, Dan Levy, of On the DL bring you a new edition of Running Numbers. With Enrico drunk on Shanghai Surprise and getting strange men to paint his name, I thought I'd take over with another one of my Olympic Rants in time for the Opening Ceremonies (which already happened everywhere but here). Here goes.
Today is 8.8.08, which I guess is supposed to be something pretty cool. It’s also the official start of the Olympics, which I guess is supposed to be something pretty cool. And call it a coincidence, but the number eight is actually a lucky number in Chinese culture. I find that serendipitously smogtacular.
As you can tell, especially if you read last week’s Running Numbers, I think this Olympics will be a disaster. But that’s the thing…I think the actual games will be surprisingly without incident, and that’s what I think will be the most disastrous.
So I had a pretty fun adventure in Beijing on Thursday night. Here's what I wrote over at FanHouse and check out the video after the jump.
So the guy on the corner giving us directions speaks great English and my buddy compliments him on it and we get to chatting. Turns out he's an art teacher at a local university and is planning to work at a museum at Harvard in the fall. True story. So anyway, some how the conversation turns to his art studio in the hotel nearby and we agree to check out his gallery. We walk through this shady looking entrance to the "hotel" where they are selling strange types of cigarettes and tobacco products, go up an escalator, through a "lobby" and through a "bar" where twenty-something locals are drinking and smoking. Finally we go through two more rooms and get to an art gallery where he paints my name "Enrico."
It's about two hours before opening ceromonies are set to kick off and we can't get anywhere near the birds nest. This place is on lockdown like you've never seen. We tried to find any spot to chill near the stadium and can't do it.
About a 10-20 block radius is simply shutdown so we don't know where to try and watch from. You prob have a much better view on tv.
About the best part of our now three hour mission to get near the opening ceremonies is the caramel frapacino I'm enjoying. Even in china everything is closed but Starbucks.
So I can't really get The700Level.com to load in Beijing. I blame Mr. C. Davis for that. I thought a little mini series on strange things seen in Beijing would make for some quick fun. Be sure to check out a few other posts I've been throwing up at FanHouse.
So apparently clothing is very optional for babies in China. Instead there are like bibs with holes in the front for easy disposal of liquids and the backs are well... nonexistent. After the jump see what kind of ease of use these outfits make for.
Continue reading "Strange Things In Beijing: Naked Babies" »
and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock.
I’ve never been to the Olympics, but more importantly I’ve never been to China. That will all change this week as I’m getting on a plane this evening to fly to the lovely country that you can get to apparently if you just dig a hole in your back yard (It just takes a while). Instead of getting out my shovel, I thought it’d be more fun to leave my country on a Tuesday and fly to China with stopovers in L.A. and Seoul, Korea before getting to China on Thursday. Where do the hours go?!?
My itinerary (which doesn't include Hong Kong, despite the post title) is quite filled with all different types of stuff. The main reason I’m heading to the Olympics is to take a class for my graduate school program in which we will study the business aspects of the big games. I won’t bore you with that but of course I’ll be blogging away. I’m FanHouse’s only blogger on the scene in China so my content should be featured fairly prominently over there. Don’t worry, I’ll link you.
The good thing about China is that you don’t have to think real hard about the time difference. When it’s 7:00 pm in Beijing and I’m checking out a riveting kayaking event, it will be 7:00 am in Philadelphia and Matt P. will be brewing his morning coffee before an exciting day of work.
So that’s one good thing about China. After the jump, a few more good things and the plan for this here website over the next month or so.
Continue reading "So I jump ship in Hong Kong, make may way over to Tibet..." »
Dan Levy of On the DL brings us a new edition of Running Numbers. With Enrico gearing up for Beijing and America getting ready to care about sports not usually on the radar here, Dan takes a look at the business side of producing the Games. Enjoy. 
Since our fearless leader is ready to embark on his month-long trek to
the Orient, I thought it would make sense to run some interesting
numbers in advance of the Games of the XXIV Olympiad.
Our fantastic friends at Awful Announcing have been all over this, but it’s worth mentioning that NBC will employ more than 2,900 people to cover these Games. The largest contingent of Costasites will be working in both China and New York and include everyone from cable pullers and parabolic mic holders to the people in charge of shuttling Bill Clement’s cock. What, you didn’t know that Bill Clement is an analyst for badminton? Yes, the man with the best mustache in hockey (and that’s saying something) will be working the Games by covering the “backyard picnic” love of his youth as well as table tennis (don’t you DARE say ping-pong in while in China, Enrico) and shooting. I didn’t know shooting was a Summer Olympics event. Oh, unless it’s skeet shooting. That was the best game for my old Olympics video game for SuperNES.
I know the Olympics are big business, but I didn’t know exactly how big they’ve become. First, lets look back at the 2,900 people NBC will use. The last time the Summer Games traveled to the Far East NBC used 1,100 people in its entourage, according to a 1988 report in the New York Times. So in 20 years, NBC has found a way to nearly triple their workforce.
Adidas is an official sponsor of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing while Nike is not. One benefit that being an official sponsor gives is the right to use the Olympic rings and the official 2008 Beijing logo in your advertisements and marketing material. Adidas is taking advantage of this while Nike is not allowed. But if you take a look at the welcome screen to Nike's USA basketball page you'll notice some interesting text selection. All those swirls kind of look like a bunch of rings, no?
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