This movie is a must-see!
TNA pro wrestler and former Olympian Kurt Angle starts in this upcoming low budget thriller. File this one in the ‘it’s so bad, it’s good’ category! Enjoy the trailer for End Game.
Bikini Clad Olympians Thank Dubya and Infuriate NBC
America’s sweethearts, Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh, fulfilled their destiny by repeating their Gold Medal win at the Olympics. Fit and photogenic, the duo was celebrated as the rock stars of the American delegation. Their dominance wasn’t in doubt, and they managed to bring the Gold home to the USA.
Congratulations, ladies, and kudos to you and to all of the Olympians for their outstanding accomplishments and efforts.
May-Treanor & Walsh did tick off their network overlords at NBC, though. In their post-victory interview, they managed to sneak in a shout out to President Bush, noting him as personally inspirational to them. NBC, of course, cut them off…
Special thanks to MsUnderestimated.com for getting the video and making it available, because the gang at NBC worked overtime to yank this file off of YouTube!
Maybe if we’re lucky some of the judges might be legit
Our friends at The Irish Times report…
Minority ethnic groups used in Games’ opening were fake
CLIFFORD COONAN in BeijingFAKE FIREWORKS, fake singers and now fake ethnic minorities. Beijing Olympics organisers have admitted that children from China’s dominant Han population were used in the opening ceremony last week, not youngsters from all 56 ethnic groups as previously claimed.
The news brings the issue of China’s treatment of the minority ethnic groups within its borders back into sharp relief, following accusations that Beijing has sought to drown out dissenting voices from different ethnic groups during the Games.
The Han ethnic group accounts for more than 90 per cent of China’s 1.3 billion people and is the dominant cultural group.
The 56 children who carried out the Chinese flag in a moment intended to showcase national harmony were all Han Chinese, but organisers played down the significance of using Han children to represent China’s ethnic diversity.
“It is typical for Chinese performers to wear different apparel from different ethnic groups,” said Wang Wei, spokesman for the organisers.
“There is nothing special about it. They will wear different apparel to signify people are friendly and happy together.”
Organisers often use Han Chinese instead of the genuine ethnic groups in national displays to avoid any spontaneous outbursts of independence.
Removes all doubt that he is a jackass – now it’s certain!
Thanks goodness he didn’t pose for a picture with slanted eyes!
If this incident gets more mainstream publicity, I wouldn’t be shocked if he shows up on WWE tv soon!
SI reports…
Wrestler tosses aside bronze medal
Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw away the bronze medal he won in the Greco-Roman category in disgust in a protest over judging in his semifinal bout.
Abrahamian was beaten in the 84 kg class by eventual gold medal winner Andrea Minguzzi of Italy but was disgusted by the verdict, shouting at the referee before confronting the judges. The Athens silver medal winner had to be restrained by teammates and later went on to win a bronze medal match.
But the row continued at the medal ceremony as he only grudgingly mounted the podium and after receiving his medal made a point of taking it off and leaving it in the center of the competition mat.
Swedish fans in the arena disagreed strongly with the original decision, jeering the judges, while coach Leo Myllari also weighed in.
“It’s all politics,” he said.
The medal was later returned to the sport’s governing body.
Boy do I feel dumb!
So I hear that those rascals, the Spaniard Basketball Federation, are in some hot water for a photo they took where it certainly looks like they are mocking their kind Chinese hosts in Beijing. Poor form, friends, poor form!
Well call me Curly, but when I first saw the pic, I thought it was the Chinese team making fun of the Spaniard team! Boy, do I feel dumb! And I evidently am a seething, hateful bigot to boot! You learn something new every day!
Special thanks to my friend Jenny for sending me this Fox News story!
Spanish Hoopsters in Hot Water Over Olympics Ad
Spain might have high hopes of bringing the Olympic flame back to the Iberian peninsula in 2016, but the country that played host to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 is sporting a public relations black eye today.
The Spanish Basketball Federation took out a full-page ad in the country’s largest sports newspaper, Marca, wishing the men’s and women’s teams good luck in the Beijing games. The photo accompanying the ad, however ”showing all team members making a slant-eyed gesture” raised eyebrows and sparked international outrage.
The heavily favored Spanish team, the reigning world champions, took the court Tuesday against China, and was greeted with typical Chinese polite applause and mixed with a rare sprinkle of boos. Spain went on to win in overtime, 85-75.
The Guardian newspaper reported that no one from the federation felt the ad was inappropriate, and that no offense was intended.
Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremony: The Italians enter in style!
The 2008 Olympics has already had its memorable moments. Most notable was the truly spectacular opening ceremony (the lip-synching imp notwithstanding). Those guys sure know how to put on a show! And the locals seem to be genuinely proud that their nation is showcasing this great event.
I don’t watch much of the Olympics. I actually find the event pretty boring, by and large, and the whole enterprise tends to be a bloated mess. But I do like the opening march of the national delegations and usually try to watch it.
Well, most of the delegations come into the stadium upbeat and happy, but pretty much march onto the grounds and wave at the fans, family, and friends in the stands and watching at home. These days many of them hold camcorders to record their great moment, and I don’t blame them. It’s not a stoic entrance in most cases, but the delegations tend to take it seriously.
“Here come the Italians”
The Italian delegation took the field in style – carrying their paisans piggy back, mugging for the camera, slapping each other in the back of the heads, and otherwise horsing around. Several of the women in particular were enjoying the pomp and the the attention. Broad smiles and laughter abounded. Even the US announcers noted just how silly they were and how much fun they were having.
Kudos to Italia – reminding everyone that you should make every experience as fun and funny as possible!
Evidence that our friends in China are as superficial as us westerners!
AFP reports…
Olympic child singing star was a fake: ceremony director
The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show’s musical director has revealed.Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday.
Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.
But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.
“The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation,” Chen said in an interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was apparently wiped from the Internet in China.
Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour ceremony.
“The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression,” said Chen, a renowned contemporary composer and French citizen.
“Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed,” he said.
He said the final decision to stage the event with Lin lip-synching to another girl’s voice was taken after a senior member of China’s ruling Communist Party politburo attended a rehearsal.
“He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did,” he said, without disclosing further details of the order.
The ceremony directed by China’s Oscar-nominated filmmaker Zhang Yimou and featuring more than 15,000 performers won high praise in China and overseas for its breadth, scope and flawless execution.
However criticism began to build after it emerged that another part of the opening ceremony had been faked.
Supposedly live pictures of fireworks depicting footprints moving from central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to the Olympic stadium in the north of the capital were actually partly computer-generated or pre-recorded for TV, organisers have admitted.
“This illustrates an important aspect of these Olympic Games,” said Xiao Qiang, the director of the China Internet project at the University of California at Berkeley and former dissident.
“It is all about projecting the right image of China with no respect for honesty or for the audience.
“I do not think the Chinese state realises how unethical this is, they don’t understand what kind of values they are reflecting.”
Earlier this year Olympic organisers preoccupied with the right image for the country were criticised for insisting that only tall, slim, young and attractive women could serve as medal award ceremony hostesses.
Reports in the Chinese press concerning the faking of the song were sparse but Internet chat rooms have attracted debate with most people critical of the decision to fake the performance.
“This is an insult to the real singer and to all the people who listened,” said one commentator on popular portal Netease, reflecting the general tone.
The Eric Moussambani Story
Sydney, Australia. 2000. Like most men, when I think of Sydney I think of statuesque, beautiful Aussie women. But the 2000 Olympics did give us another genuine Sydney mental association – that is the stirring story of Equatorial Guinea’s Olympic hero, Eric Moussambani.
Equatorial Guinea had no Olympic sized swimming pools to train in, so he made do with a hotel swimming pool. And Moussambani’s training consisted of about 8 months of part time practice. No matter: with the dogged determination of a true world class athlete, he packed his bags and went to Sydney to proudly represent his nation.
After a false start that disqualifies the other two competitors from the 100 Meter Freestyle, Moussambani is the sole competitor. He has to come in first, in a field of one. And in his great Olympic moment, he does the impossible.
He almost drowns.
Despite his performance, the record books show that he finished the 100 meter freestyle in 1:52.72, breaking the Equatorial Guinea national record.
Peaceful Doves sacrificed to the Olympic Gods
Seoul, South Korea. 1988. In a moment that would make children cry and give adults nightmares for years to come, those dumbass symbols of love and peace, the doves, decide to perch themselves on the Olympic torch just moments before it is lit, incinerating them instantly!
Now, that’s Olympic History!
This is a dream come true!
Well, folks who know me well know that I am a longtime fan and admirer of that shy creature of the pacific northwest, Sasquatch. A mighty, misunderstood being, I have always felt that he was most likely quite friendly, and merely reacts with fear when he encounters human beings. If we could demonstrate to his species that we mean him no harm, I am sure he would be far more social!
Well, I’m poking around some sites checking out those creepy Beijing 2008 Olympic mascots, and I encounter a link to the official mascots of the 2010 Olympics to be held just to the north of the USA the city with the most nordic-looking fashion models per capita, friendly Vancouver.
Needless to say, what I discovered thrilled me!
Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots
So I look at Miga, who I suspect is an obnoxious French penguin. Then I look at Sumi, who I suspect is a gay mountain climber. OK, it’s Canada so suppose that makes sense. Then my attention shifts to the large mascot in the middle – despite the earmuffs and snow shoes, I immediately figure it must be Sasquatch.
I must be wrong – no way that my old pal Sasquatch would be given such a prominent promotional push for the Olympics. That would be great for his career! So I click on the icon to get to the bottom of it.
Turns out I was right – the mascot is indeed ‘Quatchi,’ The Sasquatch!
Needless to say, the Vancover Olympics will be must see tv!
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