Short Circuit City

I may be the biggest, but I'm definitely not the brightest tool in the box. There are things I know about - sports, comic books, Tina Fey - and things I don't - politics, religion, current affairs, anything that is really actually important. Because of this, I am writing with a shaker full of salt lodged between the letters on my keyboard.

The economy sucks. Duh. We've known this for months and nothing has really changed to make us think any differently. And just as we all decided that Yes We Could, we come to the realization that 2009 has the potential to be even worse. Hooray. Did I understand that America was struggling? Yes, but only on the most basic of fronts. But that all changed today. Something happened that hit me dead between the eyes.

Circuit City closed its doors. Well, not all of its doors, but over 560 of them. That's right, Best Buy's overshadowed little brother is laying off thousands of employees after filing for bankruptcy. Now, I've never shopped at Circuit City. Not once. I've always been a Best Buy man myself. But ever since I can remember I've seen those gaudy red blocky building fronts from the road. I've had friends stand in line there at 5 a.m. to buy laptop computers. I've watched their terrible commercials for years. I've recycled dozens of their ads in the weekend newspaper. And now they're gone.

So this is what the economic crisis is all about. Just down the road an IHOP closed down. A place more popular on Sunday mornings than a free money machine in Las Vegas is now dark. I've heard that the closing is just temporary, and that it might not even be for economic reasons. But it got me thinking. Tonight I was talking to some friends about Netflix and Red Box and all the alternative ways to rent movies these days. I hardly know anybody that actually goes to the movie store to rent movies anymore. Could you imagine all Blockbusters just shutting down? While some of this has to do with alternative outlets and marketing strategies, the weak economy has to be to blame for some of it, right?

Businesses are darkening all over America. Just think of your favorite shopping center of 10-15 stores. In the coming years they could one by one be going dark, like a storefront sign with some of the letters burnt out.

No Circuit City, IHOP or Blockbuster? Troubling times indeed, my friend.

Funny or Die...I'll take funny, please

If you don't recognize any of the performers in this video from funnyordie.com, you probably shouldn't be reading this...or living.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones

Cheering China

The Chinese are putting their home-court/field/country advantage to good use. The constant raucous support of their athletes during these Olympics is different from the support we often see at home. I've written before that the US has traveled well at these Games, providing audible support for athletes in several venues (The Regroup, August 9). But the Chinese people's interest in their athletes is a little different. They seem to live and die on the performances of their competitors, no matter what sport they are watching.

I can't imagine dozens of Americans glued to their TVs to watch shooting or weight lifting back home. But that's what I see here in offices, subway stations and restaurants. Of course we give ample attention to the bigger Olympic sports - swimming, track and field, gymnastics, and even basketball - but we tend to forget about many of the others. Not here. So much of the excitement that comes from sports seems, well, foreign, for the Chinese. At the softball game I went to last week, any ball hit in the air, whether it was a pop up to the pitcher or a can of corn to right field, was greeted with a smattering of "ohhs" from much of the crowd, as if they were watching fireworks ascend into the sky. And yesterday, when defending champion Liu Xiang had to pull out of the 110m hurdle event with an injury, citizens were moved to tears. I don't think many Americans felt their eyes water when Tyson Gay was injured a couple months ago.

I think these differences stem from the fact that we get to watch world-class athletes in multiple sports on an almost daily basis. Some Americans might find this rampant Chinese nationalism to be pompous or juvenile, and that is understandable. But maybe they are just deprived of some of the wonders of sports that we take for granted. Pompous and/or proud, the the Chinese are showering all of their athletes with support during these Olympics.

Tiger Tracks

There are Tigers everywhere.

There's been no zoo outbreak. Detroit's baseball team is not on a mid-season barnstorming tour of the East, and the most famous golfer on the planet hasn't been cloned and scattered around China. But still, I've seen my fair share of Tigers here in Beijing.

It turns out the representation of the University of Missouri extends much further than the 60 or so volunteers that arrived on July 2nd. I have stumbled across a number of people with connections to Mizzou, and I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface.

Last week I was walking around the Olympic Green with some of my co-workers when we ran into a guy in a white floswimming.org shirt wielding a video camera. He asked us where we were from, we told him Mizzou, and he surprised us by telling us he was an '07 grad. It turns out it was Garrett McCaffrey, a former swimming teammate of two of our own volunteers, Allison Bennett and Kayla Bowcutt.

When me and some other students briefly met Cullen Jones (The Regroup, August 12) at NBC's Today Show, he asked us where we were from. After learning we were from Mizzou, he immediately asked if we knew Bennett Clark, another former Mizzou swimmer. It turns out Jones and Clark trained together over the past year.

There are several athletes competing this year that spent at least a couple years at Mizzou. Linas Kleiza hit a game-winning three in the waning moments of Lithuania's win over Argentina; Christian Cantwell won a silver medal in the shot put; Ben Askren will open up his Olympic campaign in the wrestling freestyle 74-kg qualifications on Wednesday.

But the connections reach out past the athletes themselves. I met Mizzou grad Dan Pierce, now a director of communications for Anheuser Busch, at a Club Bud opening ceremonies party last week. And let's not forget the no-doubt dozens of alumni journalists here covering the Games, including ESPN's Pat Forde, who is anchoring the Worldwide Leader's coverage of Michael Phelps. (Note to self: would tying an anchor, from a boat or the set of the Today Show, actually make a difference in any of Phelps' races?)

And let's not forget about the close-to 9,000 University of Missouri School of Journalism anniversary pins slowly permeating a venue, subway car or security line near you. I'm more surprised to find somebody without one of the pins than I am to see them hanging off ID lanyards. While Michael Phelps may break records and be known as the greatest Olympian ever, it's clear the University of Missouri is the most dominant force at the Olympics.

Softball short-hops

My buddy Chris and I went and caught the USA game against Venezuela yesterday. The result was never really in doubt, as the Americans scored an Olympic-record 11 runs on their way to a shutout. With little in the way of the competition taking place on the field (imagine kids that still use pitching machines going up against MLB All-Stars, and you'll almost be able to grasp just how overmatched the Venezuelan team was), I had plenty of time to jot down some random thoughts and observations during the game.

• The ball is about the only thing that is bigger. This feels like a baseball version of bubble hockey. The outfielders are so shallow for the first two hitters. If either of them pops up a bunt, it could land over the left fielder's head.
• Jennie Finch (right) balled her right hand when she was clapping after the ceremonial first pitch. Is this because that's her pitching hand or because she's too busy holding the hearts of thousands of men in it? Neither would surprise me. Do you think Casey Daigle feels bad that he isn't even the best pitcher in his house?
• Softball players go all the way around the horn after outs. This inclusion continues after each half inning in the field, when they girls gather at the top step to give out high-fives and giggle and place bets on how fast they are going to get to 10 runs.
• In Olympic softball, the pitchers have to pitch within 20 seconds from when they get the ball back from the catcher. Good for fans with ADD, not for hitters who are trying to figure out how to hit Finch.
  
• After the first inning, I heard some awful bastardization of the Jackson 5's "I Want you Back." It still wasn't as bad as Lil' Romeo's "My Baby." You remember that song, right? Ah, you're lucky then.
  

Others making waves in the pool

"We wanted to win, too."

Cullen Jones (right), the third swimmer in the the US men's 4x100m freestyle relay team that captured gold on Monday, said these five words to Meredith Vieira on NBC's Today Show hours after his team's dramatic triumph. He was responding to a question about any pressure the team was facing because of teammate Michael Phelps' highly-publicized quest for 8 Olympic golds. The most interesting thing about the comment was that he sounded like he was trying to remind everybody that, oh yeah, he was an Olympic athlete, too. And, in case you forgot, he was swimming for a gold medal of his own.

There are always athletes that are going to transcend their teams, and sometimes their sport. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Right now, Michael Phelps can most certainly be put in this category. But, by elevating Phelps to such heights, the media threatens to downplay and cheapen the accomplishments of those around him. So much so that an Olympian has to remind the public that he was racing for his own gold medal.

Michael Phelps did not gift that gold medal to Cullen Jones. Cullen Jones, along with Garrett Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak, have put in thousands of hours in the pool to get where they are, and sometimes the bright light that shines on Phelps gets in the eyes of the viewers, keeping them from seeing the accomplishments of others.

Is this Phelps' fault? Probably not. I have never met Michael Phelps, and I might not ever meet him. I've heard from several people who have met him and interviewed him that he is not the most personable guy to be around. I've heard more than a few say that he comes across as arrogant. But, I highly doubt he runs around chasing cameras and pleading for interviews. And, while I haven't read every interview he's ever done, I'm sure he's very proud and appreciative of his teammates. His swimming capabilities are unparalleled, and his goal of swimming after Mark Spitz is an engaging story that warrants following. But, let's make sure we don't drown out the efforts of others making waves in the pool.

Today last night

Who would have thought one of the my biggest thrills of the Olympics would come from none other than Al Roker? No, it wasn't when he implored the television to watch a cooking segment about, "pulling noodles." And as you can imagine, Roker didn't take my breath away with any sort of athletic feat. Instead, it was his generosity and affability, along with that of the other anchors and athletes on NBC's Today Show, that provided the excitement on live TV.

At about 8 AM CST, Roker and the rest of the anchors of NBC's Today Show were doing a stand-up in front of a crowd of on-lookers from their set on the Olympic Green when a boisterous (some would probably say "rude" and/or "obnoxious") "M-I-Z" "Z-O-U" rang out from the crowd behind him. Without missing a beat, as if it were written into some imaginary cue cards in his head, he recognized the Tigers in the crowd and kept going.

A small group of us, including myself, Ted Arthur (who you'll probably see on the NBC set himself sometime in the next few years), Julia Shuck, Laura Dotson, Eric Durban, Chris McDougall, Allison Bennett, Whitney Wright, Danielle Karstens, Ashley Ward and Beth Androuis, went and watched the show on Monday night. Some of us had signs, while others had pins, handshakes and comments to dole out to the anchors and athletes being interviewed.

Probably the most interesting part of the entire ordeal was how down to earth all of the celebrities involved were. The first person we met was Cullen Jones, a member of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team that snatched gold from the clutches of France yesterday. He was very nice and signed hundreds of autographs for the fans. It snowballed from there, as we got visits from all four Today Show anchors. Especially nice was Ann Curry. During a break, she came over and talked to us about the importance of our job as journalists and how she respected us for what we were undertaking as journalism students. Mariel Zagunis (who many would say is doing the public a disservice by competing in a sport that requires her to wear a mask), fresh off defending her individual saber gold medal in fencing, took time to pose for pictures, and silver medalists Dara Torres and Christine Magnuson stopped by for a sec.

Discovering the personable nature of the celebrities involved in the Today Show taping was a different kind of thrill, one that didn't involve sabers or a last-second reach for a pool wall. Nevertheless, it was still a thrill, an example of how the Olympics is truly an experience as opposed to just a series of athletic events. Now, if only we could have gotten one of those Mizzou pins on Tom Brokaw's lapel...