Happy St Patrick's Day to one and all. It doesn't feel much like St Paddy's in sunny, warm California, and I forgot to wear green. March 17 is also the date when my late maternal grandparents were married in 1925 -- 85 years ago. Crazy, but I can still remember their 50th wedding anniversary celebration and how much I hated the dress I had to wear -- guess that's why I spent that evening at my paternal grandparents home.
Hubby and I spent last weekend in Big Sur for his birthday and Ventana Inn was amazing. The suite was beautiful with a wood fireplace and an incredible ocean view. We did not want to leave and joked about staying until we maxed out the Amex card. It was wonderful being in the woods as it was so quiet...except for the heater, and the couple in a hot tub a few doors down. The only disappointment was the restaurant, so if we ever stay again we'll go out to Nepenthe for dinner.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
What Happened Last Night NBC?
Yesterday evening Hubby and I had the television tuned to NBC for the closing ceremony of the winter olympics in Vancouver. It seemed like an endless highlight reel from the past two weeks. Since we've viewed the games throughout we decided instead to watch 'The Amazing Race' on CBS and switch back and forth until they finally started the ceremony.
What a disappointment. In the past I loved when they showed the athletes walk into the stadium en masse, but NBC only bothered to show footage of American and Canadian athletes. What about the other countries? Then the athletes had on these sily white ponchos, so even if the camera panned through where they were seated you couldn't tell what country they were from. Sometimes you couldn't tell who were members of the audience and who were athletes.
The ceremony itself was underwhelming. I was hoping for so much more than William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and Catherine O'Hara trying to be funny -- no wonder Martin Short did not make his scheduled appearance: he probably read the script and ran. Then there was Michael Buble singing 'The Maple Leaf Forever' with women dressed in short RCMP uniforms. It made me cringe and wonder how the RCMP could allow this to tarnish their brand. Guess they were going for campiness with the giant blow up beavers and moose. While they were trying to make fun of Canadian stereotypes, I fear it only reinforced these stereotypes to international audiences. What is an inside joke to Canadians loses something in translation. The most stirring moment last night was the choir singing the Russian national anthem; it was quiet, elegant, and beautiful. Sometimes less is more.
The strangest moment of the evening proved to be the jarring end to olympic coverage at 10:30pm for some Jerry Seinfeld reality show involving fighting spouses. So, if you wanted to keep watching the rest of the ceremony you had to wait an hour. We opted to watch 'Desperate Housewives' on the dvr and then we struggled to watch the rest of the olympics 'after party' for about ten minutes before we fell asleep. NBC really needs to revamp their Olympics coverage in the future.
What a disappointment. In the past I loved when they showed the athletes walk into the stadium en masse, but NBC only bothered to show footage of American and Canadian athletes. What about the other countries? Then the athletes had on these sily white ponchos, so even if the camera panned through where they were seated you couldn't tell what country they were from. Sometimes you couldn't tell who were members of the audience and who were athletes.
The ceremony itself was underwhelming. I was hoping for so much more than William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and Catherine O'Hara trying to be funny -- no wonder Martin Short did not make his scheduled appearance: he probably read the script and ran. Then there was Michael Buble singing 'The Maple Leaf Forever' with women dressed in short RCMP uniforms. It made me cringe and wonder how the RCMP could allow this to tarnish their brand. Guess they were going for campiness with the giant blow up beavers and moose. While they were trying to make fun of Canadian stereotypes, I fear it only reinforced these stereotypes to international audiences. What is an inside joke to Canadians loses something in translation. The most stirring moment last night was the choir singing the Russian national anthem; it was quiet, elegant, and beautiful. Sometimes less is more.
The strangest moment of the evening proved to be the jarring end to olympic coverage at 10:30pm for some Jerry Seinfeld reality show involving fighting spouses. So, if you wanted to keep watching the rest of the ceremony you had to wait an hour. We opted to watch 'Desperate Housewives' on the dvr and then we struggled to watch the rest of the olympics 'after party' for about ten minutes before we fell asleep. NBC really needs to revamp their Olympics coverage in the future.
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