Posts by st ephen

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  • Up Front: I Don't Think it Means What…,

    Sometimes timing is all. On a work trip to the UK one of the office lads picked me up from the airport and hit me with a couple of minutes of evidently good-natured but nonetheless incomprehensible gibberish. There was a moments silence as we looked at each other then he said:

    "I'll get me coat".

    A year later NZ got The Fast Show, and I discovered that it wasn't just jet-lag and a Brummie accent that had stumped me.

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: I Don't Think it Means What…,

    All you nerds will spare a thought for Prince Charles then. While chatting to Black Youth on some Council music scheme he came out with “__Dig that crazy rhythm!__” and was ridiculed by the press for using dated hippy slang in a woeful attempt to 'get down with the kids'. Obviously the press was too young to spot the even older reference.

    Besides, if anyone can be given a bit of latitude in the use of anachronism, surely it's His Royal Highness The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Great Master and First and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, etc etc?

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: The Undertaker is Hamlet,

    Then allow me to disagree (slightly).
    Valerie did all those things in the pursuit of hurling a metal object further than anyone else and thereby winning a competition. Sport, not Art.
    Beatrice, on the other hand, did something else - something that seemed quite disconnected with the purpose of her event and left sports reporters open-mouthed and saying WTF? Now that was Art.

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: The Undertaker is Hamlet,

    ...I'd say the art arises from the person doing the framing rather than the original thing.

    Exactly. Sport is now packaged and delivered as entertainment, with an eye to the 'viewing pleasure of others'. Sometimes that deliberately veers into the art world. But the game itself is just a game.

    Which is not to say that performance artists can't infiltrate sports for their own artistic purposes. I reckon you could spot them though...

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: The Undertaker is Hamlet,

    Depends on whether Art is solely in the eye of the beholder, or the intent of the performer counts for something.
    Imagine three blokes watching a pack of stray dogs harass a mob of sheep on the opposite hill. The farmer sees events from an economic perspective. The animal rights activist sees cruelty and suffering. Only the artist sees a swirling mass of colour and form, sometimes regular, with sudden jolts of randomness, ebbing and flowing like the foam on a West Coast beach. Or some such. Give each bloke a video camera and one will produce evidence, the next propaganda, and the last Art. But the dogs and sheep are just acting on instinct. (Or more to the point, they're not 'acting' at all).
    Plenty of art has been produced by pointing cameras at the Olympics, but that doesn’t mean sport=art.

    Usain Bolt's artistic contributions to the Games may have begun before the finish line, but this was still after his real objective had been achieved.

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Disco Tom,

    Which nice little country has had its last two Olympic gold medal winners busted after the drug tests?

    Well yes, but then again her husband was a banned drug-cheating discus thrower, and her pattern of avoiding tests and sudden improvement at a relatively advanced age is template stuff. It's not about race, culture or nationality - it's about sub-cultures within particular sports in particular regions and the pattern of suspicious results (and positive tests) that result.

    I'd submit that East German + woman + 1970's + gold medal is actually a pretty good basis for making a determination...

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Disco Tom,

    May I encourage you to elaborate on or qualify this comment. I would hate to get snippy over a misunderstanding.

    Probably all you need to know is that Ramzi and Baala (like Marion Jones and Nick Willis) have never failed a drug test. So snip away!

    Alternatively, ten minutes on Google will give you the circumstantial case against Ramzi. For Baala, wasn't the smiley enough qualification?. Though in the context of discussing African dominance over Europeans at distance running, it’s a bit daft to ignore Baala’s heritage.

    And in defence of Nick, he did say that the gold medals from the likes of Walker and Snell clearly outshone his bronze, while Snell pointed out that in his day the Africans weren't the force they are now. But when it comes to defending all that religious triumphalism, count me out...

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Disco Tom,

    ...(b) he didn't beat Morcelli or Kip Keino or Filbert Bayi or any other superstars with significantly better times and records.

    Simon, the only reason you can name-drop Bayi and Keino is that 30+ years ago when those guys were around, NZ had athletes who could compete with them. Now we do again, which (unpleasant racist stuff aside) was kind of the point of the article. In finishing 5th in his semi final, Nick knocked out 5 of the current top ten. If Nick keeps improving, then maybe by the next Olympics you'll be more familiar with the current crop of superstars.

    In fact, the current Commonwealth champion heading off a French athlete for the bronze is not really big news at all....

    Baala, like the winning "Bahraini" has North African origins, which is athletics shorthand for "drug cheat". ;-) So within the athletics community, the result was pretty significant - unlike, say, an East European woman winning a marathon....

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Disco Tom,

    Gold is always better than a Bronze.

    Well yes, in the sense that no one can ask more than that you beat the competition who turn up on the day. But otherwise, I'll call bollocks on that.
    Put it this way - which is the greater achievement; winning the World Cup in Cricket or winning the World Cup in Football? No bloody contest. Even making the quarter-finals in the Football World Cup is going to trump the cricket, and there's no reason why you can't apply the same subjectivity to Olympic sports (and events within sports).
    Personally I'd still rank Val as #1 - she destroys the competition. But any medal in a global sport like running beats a medal in left-handed lightweight coxless sculling, or whatever it is that we specialise in these days.

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: I've been hybridising for a…,

    "... opinion pieces are substituted for reporting and analysis - and everyone has an opinion."

    And it's not just in politics. Thanks to Stephen Jones there are now a host of copy-cat rugby rants in the MSM expecting to be taken seriously. Journos as talk back shock-jocks.

    I think it's because whereas sport was once treated as News and reported as such, now it's treated as part of the Entertainment industry. Unfortunately, in our shallow and cynical world, Politics seems to be making the same transition.

    dunedin • Since Jul 2008 • 254 posts Report Reply

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