it was totally people

if you missed the opening ceremonies last night, you might consider using your internet powers to find a video of it somewhere. it was actually something worthwhile on television, in strange ways. literally thousands of people involved as performers, and they pulled off some strange and entertaining stuff. a lot of planning clearly went into the whole thing. the commentary was a total highlight; the people they had announcing were pretty ridiculous. bob fucking costas. during most of the artistic portion (like two hours, it is pretty extreme and kind of intimidating), they were clearly reading off of teleprompters and saying some pretty things unnatural for them. but the parade of nations came along and those dudes said some outrageous shit.
but seriously, the performance piece was amazing. ludicrously epic. we decided that like twenty years down the road dvds of this performance will enjoy great popularity among certain segments of the college population. "what are you doin' tonight man?" "dude, i know someone who has a copy of beijing '08, we're totally watchin that shit!"
after all, it featured thousands of people in jumpsuits that had a bunch of lights on them. the whole thing was pretty entertaining though. i had no idea i was about to be into the olympics. i'm not like planning on blocking out time to catch as much i can, but everything has the potential to be alright. caught the women's beach volleyball at eulogy earlier, usa v. the netherlands. the dutch were bottom ranked in the group, americans top, usa wins 2-0. they made it close though, and got a point in the group for some reason. maybe because the second set had to go extra match points.
also had an excellent pint at eulogy, great divide hercules ipa off the tap. wholly satisfactory double ipa, but nothing to set it apart other than being a perfect typical example. i am only hard on the style because i love it so much. so many good ones out there.
i happened into eulogy on my way back from some sort of practice protest i watched. i had seen these people before in the dead of winter, so this was much better. however, the destination was not anywhere as close to an el stop. i decided to walk because i hadn't seen a lot of queen village. worth walking through, very nice neighborhood, pretty, lots of residential but not overly dominant. seems to be kind of yuppie, has a lot of townhomes with garages on the bottom floor, everything looks pretty new for how old the area is, lots of construction going on, lots of babies and dogs. telltale signs of yuppitude. lots of nice-but-not-too-nice (aka moderately affordable) restaurants, probably a great place to live. inordinate amount of dead stickers in the windows of houses and on vehicles. strange.
the event itself was pretty low key, but it was also well staked out by city people whose job it is to manage these things. good folks, by and large. lots of picture taking by all sorts of people. so many people have cameras now, and that has good and bad sides, but it is certainly a big deal these days. one guy had some sort of apparatus akin to something used for rock climbing and used it to hang off of a tall poll next to shorter ones he could stand on. pretty tenacious. especially compared with the other sort-of media types present: two of them without real clear credentials chose to interview a notably attractive young lady from the group rather than one of the two leaders. just found that kind of funny. you know how those documentary-types are, right john edwards?
not a whole lot happened, and it was hot out, so it was fortunate that eulogy was on the way back to the el. it was also fortunate that i didn't stay there long and made it back in time for the flea market. had to make some tough decisions as usual, but i'm also pleased with what i chose. reasonable prices on things that are great to have on vinyl. all in pretty good shape, and all around five bucks each. some girls, after the gold rush, a night at the opera, band of gypsies, and highway 61 revisited. the idea was to buy things that i will listen to often. it was nice to have a couple bucks after getting paid. reminds me of why a job is better than law school. i don't even want to think about that garbage.