Lifestyle

It was bound to happen: A member of the U.S. Olympic diving team was disqualified from competition today when it was learned that he did not have a sufficiently compelling human storyline to exploit on the NBC telecast of the worldwide sporting event. Tracy Klujian, the expelled diver, was not raised by a single mother, […]

I just watched Ukraine featherweight boxer Vasyl Lomachenko pound Russia’s world champion, Albert Selimov, 14-7. That was one serious bunch of fists (scrappyweight, according to Neal). Selimov was so cheesed off–you could really see it in the last round–he refused to shake Lomachenko’s hand. So not cool. Unless you’re playing croquet with my family, and […]

W even manages to screw up the simple art of being a spectator.

I know very little about Chinese contemporary art, but I figured now’s as good a time as any to correct that oversight. Zhang Dali is a big name; he was the only graffiti artist in Beijing during the ’90s, and was the first artist since Keith Haring and Jackson Pollock to be on the cover […]

More on the American connection to the Olympics. First off, for all the talk about sportsmanship and hail-well-met-old chumminess (and let’s not get too cynical – this indefinable feel-good quality is present, otherwise no one – er, me – would watch it) this is a capitalist event. General Electric, the company that owns NBC and […]

Reason #8,762 to be ashamed to be an American: …t’s difficult to imagine that the president’s trip to Beijing didn’t peak when he received an up-close and personal beach volleyball lesson at Chaoyang Park from defending gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. As if things weren’t hot enough for the president, who had just […]

I think Howdy and Hidi are my favourite Olympic mascots of all time. While searching for a photo of these lovable square dancing polar bears from the 1988 Calgary Olympics, I found this clever ad series promoting safe sex in China, placing condoms in Olympic pictograms. How these two things managed to get onto the […]

MacDonald’s has absolutely lost their marbles. “Going for GOLD has never tasted so good” is the catch-phrase on an ad picturing a huge burger, giant fries, and a huge Coke. MacDonald’s, I’m certain, is the main reason Americans are doing so well in Beijing, what with 60 percent of their children unable to see their […]

The teletubbies are filling up the dead air at the fencing championships. What the heck is going on? Ah. nevermind. The French women’s fencing champion just ran the green one thru. If only, though. I’m beginning to realize that if CBC Radio had this much dead air, there would be nobody listening. It’s been Chinese […]