Beijing Stadium Designer Won't Attend Opening Ceremony

Chinese Artist, Ai Wei Wei, a design consultant for the Bird’s Nest Stadium, says he plans to stay away from the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

"The "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of "fair competition". It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage and strength. Following the same principles, I will stay away from the opening ceremony, because I believe the freedom of choice is the basis of fair competition. It is the right I cherish most."

Ai Wei Wei

In a by-line article for The Guardian, Wei Wei says he wanted the stadium to represent freedom, not autocracy, and that China must change.

"We live in a world where everything is politicised, but some people insist the Olympics should be different. They imply that this fortnight of sport is somehow disconnected from history and psychology, unrelated to theory and morality and on a more elevated plane than base human nature. They argue that anyone who links the games with politics has sinister ulterior motives, that they are anti-Chinese. But the real reason they don't like politics is because any discussion of the subject reminds people who was responsible for making China so detached from the rest of the world."

...

The Olympics are planning to throw quite the bruhaha to celebrate the unveiling of this stadium. They’re going to blow up 35,000 fireworks in 1,800 locations around the city. People are so pumped, they’re not even complaining that Jackie Chan is performing. (musically!)

And as the designer at the center of this spectacle, Wei Wei stands to take a healthy share of the credit (Who designed the Athens Olympic Stadium? Zeus?) Wei is an important player and this is his big moment. The fact that he's willing to forego his ultimate celebration because he thinks it's all a guise and a sham is admirable.

Good for you, Asian Zeus. I respect your conviction.

LINKS:

Beijing Olympics: The Bird's Nest stadium (The Telegraph)
Why I'll stay away from the opening ceremony of the Olympics (The Guardian)

TOSS THE BURNER: August 7, 2007

BLUEPRINT 3 from kwest on Vimeo.

NYHOOSIER let's us know that Blueprint 3 in on the way!

SI Pop Culture Grid (Extra Mustard)
It’s a Really Big Shoe (And One)
Programmer or Writer? (The Sports Dollar)
Natalie Gulbis Shows Leg In Cold British Temps (Busted Coverage)
The Michael Vick Saga Comes to Animal Planet (Over the Top)

The Mooks of Kickball, Part Four: TRIAL OF THE CENTURY!

Just when I thought it had reached its peak…

According to Washington City Paper, “The Greatest Kickball Lawsuit of All Time” has come to end.

"In 2006, the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) sued upstart DC Kickball, claiming that founder and former WAKA officer Carter Rabasa had stolen the association's proprietary rules and then defamed WAKA by calling it "the Microsoft of kickball." Offended and pouting, WAKA demanded $356,000 in damages. Had the legal recourse existed for it, they likely would have forced Rabasa to play bocce for the rest of his life." (DCist)

A motion filed in April by both sides to dismiss the case was just passed. (i.e. everyone woke up)


There is absurdity abound here, clearly.

• The WAKA, LLC. A limited liability company (for kickball!). Sounds official, I know. You probably pay your rent to an LLC. Apparently, there is clout to be had in the kickball market, but the "Microsoft of Kickball?" The conglomerate empire...of kickball! Where am I? Even the Initech of kickball shouldn’t exist!

• $356,000 in damages! That's like somebody’s pension, if they have decent mob ties. A lawyer – in the unaccredited and strip mall sense of the profession - screed that on some documentation at one point while this suit was going on. Apparently, they were a little off, and calling somebody the Microsoft of is not actually defamation.

Forget the legal precedent set here, Let’s see if we can get a few of the same cuckoo puff law-types back involved, and reopen these proceedings with Frank Zappa suing for copyright infringement – citing the tampering of his song Waka Zawaka.


For the record, copyright infringement, tampering - I don’t know if any of this is proper terminology. If this wasn’t such fantasy camp stuff, I’d be more concerned.

John Daly Tees Off a Beer Can

The proprietor of Murder Rock Golf Course is back at it again... (via i-am-so-bored)



What they don't want you to know, is that he teen wolfed a beer on the next hole.



LINKS:

Even with his game in decline, Daly still a draw (AP)

Kids play in bouncy castle for 24 hours, get Guinness World Record!

It's a world record that would make most people dizzy.

Bounce, bounce, bounce ... for 24 hours. That was what eight boys in Michigan did this week in an effort to set a world record.

The boys began the attempt Friday morning at the Bounce-a-Lot entertainment center southwest of Detroit in Flat Rock.

They bounced two at a time in shifts in an inflatable castle. (Metro UK Weird News)

What grinds my gears about these kids is that they’re rubbing it in my face that somewhere Summer vacation still exist, and I am no longer privy to it. Grrr, just look at how carefree these brats look in their mesh shorts and athletic socks! It appears that one kid has an i-pod, you don’t think that I’m listening to music right now that lends itself to bouncing in a giant inflatable balloon? It’s Panama, by Van Halen!

Guinness World Records must still authenticate the record, a process that could take months.

Months? What is this, appeals courts? Is it that we have juveniles attempting this, regularly? If that’s the case, personally, I hope there are some real sob stories out there. Maybe an errant toenail severed the bouncy thing in the seventeenth hour. Maybe a twister swept one away.

Oh, and you better believe that I’m annoyed they did it in rotation. Rotation? What are they, training for the Cop-Out Junior Olympics? Somebody should inform these kids about other faux-endurance activities we have in this country, like team marathons. People love these, because they’re part of team and only have to run part of the race. So people who could never run a real marathon decide to do it…drunk.

Assuming everything checks out and they actually get the record, maybe they’ll luck out and get listed in the book next to the guy who holds the record for wearing the most t-shirts at one time.



Is there a chapter in the Guinness book for ‘People Who Set World Records, But Come Off Looking Like Failures’?

Toss the Burner: August 5, 2008

Considering that the movie came out in 1985, these Goonies sneakers are pretty futuristic – minus the burlap sack they come in. (via Pop Candy)

Sports Center Fights Are Always Fun (Awful Announcing)
When Athletes Blog… (Ladies…)
NBC Hopes To Cook Up Football Fun w/New Book (SportsByBrooks)
Is Big Brown Really Back? (Barstool Sports)
This Should Go Well: Joe Torre Tells Manny to Shave His Dreads (Fanhouse)

AirBama...

Shout out to Melfi for this (and, hell, who doesn’t love twittersourcing!)


Maybe, maybe not, you picked up your Barack Obama Punahou High School basketball jersey when we were all shilling for that a while back…in the same throwback light, check out what, in my opinion, is the best in campaign athletic wear yet:
This is of course a retro Air Jordan favorite from when Michael was in his prime, or what I like to call the Steve Kerr era.


Go reserve yours at Robust Flavor

Links:

Airbama T-Shirt By Robust Flavor (Robust Flavor Blog)
How To Lead All The Polls In Style (Deadspin)

Rage Against the Machine: Your Lollapalooza Day-After YouTube Champeen'

photo credit via Brooklyn Vegan

It's only about midday on the East Coast, so I'm sure there more gold yet to be uploaded from this weekend's Lollapalooza festival (an event I've been saying I'm going to every year, and have yet to attend).

As it stands, the RATM's opening song (Testify) is leading the charge with just under 16,000 views since it was uploaded yesterday.



This has Canon Powershot cinematography written all over it, but in terms of video/sound quality (ghastly compressed for web streaming), I've seen much worse. And if you like Rage, oh man, go check out the set list.

If you were lucky enough to be there, I hope you utilized Blackstone Merlot as your hydrating sports drink of choice.

Toss the Burner: August 4, 2008

photo credit

I moved over the weekend, which is the most unholy process I know by far.

NASCAR + Radio: Someone Please Explain (The Legend of Cecilio Guante)
Bullfighting Is Played Out Like Kwamé And Them Polka Dots (Deuce of Davenport)
How Many Sobriety Tests Must Paul Pierce Pass? (The Sporting Blog)
Deweycheatumnhowe Pop Quiz (The Big Lead)
11 Websites To Save You Cash During The Recession (Double Viking)


So, while we were trying to jam the sofa bed up the stairs, the neighbors start playing How Deep Is Your Love? by the Bee Gees. ('cause we're living in a world of dreams fools!)

Taking it to the Links!

photo credit

In an amusing display of Korean nationalism, a golf course in Taebeck, Gaegwon put a Korean flag in the Dokdo part of a Korean Peninsula-shaped sand trap.

Initially, I thought those mini-bunkers were to make you feel like a real jerk if your ball ended up there.

The fanfare marks a revision made last week to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names’ website that classified those disputed islets as territory belonging to no country, which was overturned by your lame duck chief and mine: George W. Bush - who grounds his club in the sand regularly. (ho!)

Seoul applauded Thursday a US decision to relist South Korea as owners of a group of tiny islands, amid a simmering dispute with Japan over claims to the territory.

President George W. Bush said a US agency was reversing its week-long decision that classified in its database the chain of rocky islets as territory belonging to no country.

"As to the database, I asked (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice to review it and the database will be restored to where it was ... seven days ago," Bush told a group of Asian reporters at the White House. (SKorea hails US decision on disputed islets)