For all my talk about how suave fencing is: I am watching the end of the gold medal round. Maria Valentina Vezzali of Italy just won the Gold in Women’s individual foil. She’s on the shoulders of her coach who is waddling around the floor. And playing in the background is this awful, nameless, faceless hard rock. Like a cross between Eddie Rabbit and Eddie Van Halen on quaaludes. Uncool, mallrat guitar noodling. Is this what the European Aristocracy listen to? If fencers were to like any pop star, it should be Brian Ferry. When it comes to giving out gold, he’d play “Editions of You.” Or, at the very least play Abba, singing “Name of the Game.”
PS Granbassi beat Trillini to win Bronze.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2008.
