Bye, Olympics, I'll miss you

[imwalde]

Man, I do love the Olympics. My parents and I watched just about every minute of primetime coverage last week, and many, many of the daytime minutes while at the beach. (I only read five books, so fewer than last year, with the Olympics as a distraction, but still, not a bad week.) This week, I saw way less of the coverage, but I did catch the Closing Ceremonies, which look really fun to attend, and by fun, I mean crazeballs. I love that the UK was not all precious, mixing in high culture with their most popular music. Kaiser Chiefs! Elbow! George Michael! Spice Girls! Psychedelic octopus! Monty Python! Except fuck you, Russell Brand, you are a douche. Also, I had no idea the Bee Gees were British.

I had a happy birthday on Thursday up with biggieshorty. A very successful theater weekend. I saw Jersey Boys (really good), Bring It On: The Musical (super fun, but don't sit in the front row if you really want to see the cheer routines), Once: A New Musical (AMAZING, also HOT DAMN Steve Kazee), and Into the Woods (really good, part of Shakespeare in the Park). We spotted Campbell Scott in Central Park waiting for the performance of Into the Woods to start. We also saw Chuck Bass, when driving by in a taxi. And I do mean Chuck Bass, and not Ed Westwick, because they were filming and he was in costume. Tiff also spotted Lily, but I did not notice her, truthfully.

The other significant development this week, I fucking LOVE the new Demi Lovato single, Give Your Heart a Break. LOVE IT. I heard it on the radio, having arrived at my destination, but I stayed in the car and waited for the song to finish before getting out. And then I promptly went home and bought it and have been listening to it constantly since.

Here, some links I've accumulated:

THIS IS WHAT A GENDER NEUTRAL TOY STORE LOOKS LIKE (THANKS HARRODS) -- I would shop there!

Andy Murray’s dogs wear his Olympic medals (PHOTO) -- Adorable

Five Bat-eared Fox Kits are Zoo Prague's Newest Handful -- AAAAGH they are so fucking cute I almost can't handle it

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny dating report: Dust off your 'X Files' fan fiction -- hahaha, man, I hope this rumor is true!

Serenity made of Legos -- Wow. Seriously impressive.

What It Felt Like To Land A Robot On Mars -- Man, I so cried

The Best Of The Internet's Reaction To The Mars Rover Landing -- Plenty of hot mohawk guy, but not exclusively

Your Excuse for Anything Today -- Heheh, too bad I didn't get to bust this out when it was timely

A Photo Of The Moon Over London Taken At Exactly The Right Moment -- that is fucking cool

32 Super Hot Pictures Of The German Men's Gymnastics Team -- Gosh, they are pretty

The Evolution Of The Vault In One GIF -- That lead me to this clip of old gymnastics, which includes clips of Larissa Latynina, who Michael Phelps just surpassed in all time medal counts. Hahaha, they are not even in the same league. BUT let us not forget that athletes only a few years ago routinely attempted much harder mounts for the balance beam. I wonder if the new scoring system makes the risk not worth it?

Comments

[shamoogity.livejournal.com]

That Old Gymnastics video was so cool! It's amazing how people are constantly pushing themselves athletically--I wonder if those early gymnasts could have conceived of what the sport would look like now. Also, I <3 Demi Lovato. So catchy.

[imwalde.livejournal.com]

(Once icon! \o/)

The vault gif of then and now really says it all. If I had a tardis at my disposal, I'd transport McKayla Maroney to some old Olympics and just watch her blow their MINDS.

I wish the internet would do something like this, but for gymnastics: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/05/sports/olympics/the-100-meter-dash-one-race-every-medalist-ever.html

Convert the old scores into modern ones with whatever level of difficulty, and see how they add up. It'd be fascinating, I bet.

[shamoogity.livejournal.com]

Cool!