Dissecting the passion (and other olympic pontification)

I'm a huge sucka for the olympic games. Something so magical about it all that I just can't exactly put a finger on. I'm an enchanted sucka for it all though; the pageantry of the opening/closing ceremonies, the obscurity of sports you hardly ever see but every 4 years, the fantastic displays of ability, the stunning life-threatening wipeouts, the spectrum of human emotion, chiseled athletes sculpted from uncountable workouts (of relentless fury)

I adore the idea of the nations of the world coming together for some purpose other than war. As an adult (hahahaha) this is my favorite aspect of the olympics. I believe a worldwide cease fire should be declared every time the cauldron is lit.

When I root down on it, there were three distinct and keen marketing gimmicks (aren't they always so keen?) that fueled the formative passion early on, which may also account for my olympic love to this day:

1.) It was either X-mas '79 or my birthday when I received a toy tractor trailer truck. It was an ABC broadcast communications center emblazoned with the 1980 Lake Placid logo. It was a cool toy and I loved it. I have hazy recollections of watching bobsledding that time around. I certainly don't remember the 'miracle on ice' but I do remember how fired up everyone was (and still is) about it. Eruzione played for BU and it was a huge, huge deal in beantown (and everywhere else)...ya, you already know that part.

I'm sure my tractor trailer eventually made it to the landfill. It's probably a rusty mess nowadays, the Howard Cosell stickrey faded to oblivion.

2.) EPYX games series for the Commodore 64....Got an email from Laura Ann this week. She stated on Facebook (the cult) that watching the olympics made her yearn for the good times of '85 and playing Winter Games on the Commodore 64 in the basement. Several friends and family members agreed and so do I....although I'm not sure we had Winter Games. I know for a fact we had World Games and California Games. We also had Summer Games 1 or 2 or both. For the hundreds of hours I sat in the basement, 10 going to 20, you think I would be able to ascertain the digital facts (can you show me where it hurts)

Yeah, EPYX rocked my video game world, fueled my fascination for sitting down sports and probably influenced my wandering to a small town on the Central Coast of California....I always endorsed myself on team Santa Cruz Skateboards. (Never learned to skate til I got here btw) Did some Wikipediaing bout the Redwood City company to find out it faded away in the 90's. Some kind of trademark infringement suit eventually did 'em in. Hey, it's all about being bought out or sued to death in a free market that hardly reflects freedom.

3.) Barcelona '92 Triplecast...widely considered a $100 billion mistake by NBC, I couldn't disagree more. The Triplecast was absolutely brilliant and will inspire how broadcasting of the olympics happens over the internet in future games. The Triplecast was WAYYYY ahead of it's time and cable tv was too fucking young to handle it...like giving the keys to the ferrari to an 8 year old.

The goal was to have wall-to-wall coverage of events in there entirety...but it was handled through a pay-per-view format and people just didn't pay. We didn't! Hey how the hell did we get triplecast?!?

The couch potato(e) in all of us applauds wildly for wasting the cherished days of August watching 10+ hour spans of decathlon! I believe that tv is shifting into a pay-per-view, on demand format where you will eventually buy everything you want to watch, when you want to watch it. This means in future games I will be able to watch curling til my eyes bleed and I'm quite happy about that.

I can't believe that was '92! I thought for sure it was the '88 games but I be wrong!!