Results tagged “olympics”

If you mention that at age 51, you still do a handstand everyday, as did Bart Conner in this 710 ESPN Radio interview recorded at Morton's Steakhouse in Downtown LA, you just might feel the urge to take off your jacket and show, not just tell. And you just might be joined by fellow '84 Olympians Peter Vidmar, Mary Lou Retton and even Greg Louganis in some handstands of their own.

If you're near the Coliseum on Saturday night and see the Cauldron lit up, fireworks in the sky, and Mary Lou Retton, Edwin Moses, and Rafer Johnson walking by, you're not in a time warp. But you can wear your aviator sunglasses -- just in case.

From Culver City to the West Valley, police officers will be supporting the Special Olympics today in a torch relay from the Westside and South LA through Hollywood and across the south rim of the Valley. It's all for a good cause--raising money and awareness--but it will cause traffic.

2008 was a year where TV saw viewership decline for at least the 8th straight year. We saw even more film stars make their way to basic cable (USA, TNT, TBS, FX, etc.) to star in their own series and we saw the big three networks make even more forays into the realm of cheap reality TV at the expense of scripted programs.

So, get this. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley just made a friendly fun bet. If the Dodgers win the playoff series against the Chicago Cubs (the first game is going on right now), Chicago will hand over their 2016 Olympic bid that we lost. And if the Cubs win, Chicago gets to take LA Times owner Sam Zell back.

SoCal native Kim Rhodes, 29, who has won four medals at various summer Olympic games for double trap and skeet shooting, found herself a victim when her custom made shotgun she used in the games was stolen yesterday.

LA Dodgers defeat San Diego Padres 6-2. Andre Ethier keeps on feasting on those fastballs. In the eighth inning with the Dodgers down 2-1 and Russell Martin on second, Ethier drove a ball out to left field for a game-tying triple. Then with the bases loaded in the ninth inning and the Dodgers leading 3-2, he hit a bases-clearing double that was barely fair down the right field line to give the Dodgers a 6-2 lead. Dodger's starter Hiroki Kuroda was shaky in this outing but managed to give up only two runs on nine hits and two intentional walks. Ethier helped Kuroda's cause by throwing Adrian Gonzalez out at the plate on a Chase Headley RBI double in the third inning. What doesn't Ethier do? With the Diamondbacks losing the Dodger's magic number is down to 16.

This weekend concludes NBC's broadcast of the XXIX Summer Olympics which has had some very enjoyable moments, not necessarily enjoyable because of NBC, but it's not like we had a lot of choice. Who knows what moments we missed in the countless events that were not broadcast, who knows what sports would have piqued the interest of Americans, if only they had exposure to them.

"No one's ever done it," exclaimed SoCal native Misty May-Treanor after becoming beach volleyball gold medal champions for the second time in a row (remember Athens?) today. Congrats, girls!

Colorado Rockies defeat LA Dodgers 4-3. Impatient hitting, bad bullpen and awful defense doesn't help any team to win games. On the Kamenetzky Brother's Purple, Gold and Blue podcast Wednesday morning, I said the Dodgers have to be wary about a tired bullpen. The bullpen has been making games more interesting than they needed to be lately, and it will be cause for concern if they continue to falter down the stretch. What more can be said about this game?

NPR's Monday Morning Edition broadcast had quite a profile on Bonnie Hammer, head of the USA network. Listen to it and it'll become pretty obvious how they come up with such predictable milquetoast programming - that's the secret to their success, American's just eat that crap up.

Pretty much an Olympics-only night tonight which looks like it will be focused on gymnastics (_still_) and now track. Left is a pic from the cycling men's sprint event which was very exciting but of course you won't be seeing any of it on NBC's prime time coverage.

Today is the premiere date of NBC Universal Digital Studio's first original online series "Gemini Division," starring Rosario Dawson and Justin Hartley. The show debuts on NBC.com, SCIFI.com, GeminiDivision.com and several mobile, gaming and VOD platforms. So here we have a network jumping into the online drama fray - remember when LAist profiled "Quarterlife" and interviewed show creator Marshall Herskovitz last Fall? It's true that "Quarterlife" has no Rosario Dawson but perhaps the lower cost of production is what makes "Quarterlife" a bit more meaty an offering than the 5-7 minute webisode format of "Gemini Division".

OK, just a couple more days to go of overexposure to Michael Phelps. Yes, he's amazing but do we need profiles of him every single night? Interesting how these profiles gloss over his 2004 DUI conviction. We know what he eats, we know how his dog snores, but we don't hear about his DUI, or his broken wrist, and other setbacks he's had over the last few years - facts which only make his story a bit more interesting but don't get the exposure as decided by NBC bigwigs.

Dear NBC, please remove Mary Carillo from all Olympics broadcasts. She towers over the terrified and cowering Chinese locals and her speech impediment caused by her oversized caps a la Matt Dillon in "There's Something About Mary" (or something??!!) is almost as incredibly annoying as the vacuous fluff pieces they have her doing - really, did we need to meet the tallest man in China who could have been her love interest or the overlong visit to the panda breeding center? Why was she dressed in a hospital gown and booties at the breeding center? Was she performing panda pelvic exams or was she receiving one from curious Chinese veterinarians?

This query made its way into the LAist inbox, and we tracked down the answer:

In case you missed all four-plus hours of it last Friday...

LA Angels defeat Seattle Mariners 7-4. The Angels looked like they would suffer a letdown after their weekend sweep over the Yankees by falling behind the Mariners 3-0. But aided with a Juan Rivera solo shot and Vladamir Guerrero two-run shot in the fifth inning, the Angels came back to show who's king of the AL West. They got three insurance runs in the eighth inning and just continue to steam through any and all comers who stand in their way. Just to show how dominant the Angels are, at the All Star Break they had a six game lead in the division. As of this victory the Angels have a 15 game lead, and at 75-43 have the best record in baseball. In related news, the Angels flagship station AM 830 KLAA (which is owned by the Angels) will be a radio affiliate for Notre Dame Fighting Irish football.

With the help of this video directed by Neon, Kanye West competes in the "games".

NBC's primetime Olympic broadcast isn't as horrible as we thought it would be but it still suffers from the reasons we went over in last week's post. The live broadcasts have been good - thanks NBC for that and for some of the streaming online content. There's definitely TV worth watching in there, just not enough of it despite the hype.

LA Dodgers defeat Philadelphia Phillies 8-6. The Dodgers were lucky to have a big lead going into the bottom of the ninth or these words would be talking about the Dodgers third consecutive game lost in the ninth inning. It seemed like the Dodgers had finally learned that one Manny an entire team does not make, but that ninth inning almost undid things. Jonathan Broxton gave up three hits and two earned runs in that ninth inning but got out of the jam when Ryan Howard hit a grounder weakly to second. Nomar Garciaparra will be back in the lineup after his 50th trip on the DL. The question now is who goes down? It's starting to sound like Andruw Jones might go on the DL. Maybe.

So there's this thing called the Olympics on TV and it's as if TCM, HBO, and Showtime aren't even attempting to compete by showing some decent movies. If you're not into sports it seems as if no other network is stepping in to make an offer for your time, it's kind of pathetic.

CONVENTION: SIGGRAPH, the annual conference that caters to the gamers, graphic artists and engineers kicks off today at the Los Angeles Convention Center and runs until Friday. There are plenty of classes, networking opportunities and lotsa geek eye candy.

With so much going on in the world of sports right now with the Olympics, baseball, USC injuries and all, here's a list of things to keep an eye on.

Shocking news of a knife-attack on two Americans affiliated with the Olympics on the prestigious event's first day have local reverberations, as the victims' identities have been revealed. According to Associated Press reports, Todd Bachman and his wife Barbara were stabbed midday at the Drum Tower (pictured), a popular tourist location, by Tang Yongming, 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou. Following the stabbings, the attacker committed suicide by leaping from the second level where the incident took place. Mr. Bachman died from his wounds, and Mrs. Bachman was hospitalized with injuries. The status of their Chinese tour guide, who was also a victim of the attack, is not clear.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you should know that the Olympics start this weekend. Tonight the enormous super-choreographed extravaganza known as the Opening Ceremonies will take hours of your life away from you. Over the next couple weeks, TV Junkie will show what's on Prime Time as well as any events that should be highlighted depending upon how the games go.

The biggest problem with the Olympics television broadcasts over the next couple of weeks is that when you and I see them in the States, the events are long since over, they're history, they're not news they're "olds". While it's true that NBC is offering some events via live streaming online, there's a reason why you have that giant plasma screen TV in your living room - it's to watch TV, not your laptop.

It's 08-08-08, and you know what that means. Besides being a popular day for weddings (and just about any other kind of party you can imagine), this Friday marks the start of the Olympics. They're just twelve hours away! (This post is 8:08 a.m.)

Since the time of ancient Greece, the Olympics were designed to allow athletes to compete and travel in peace -- even if they hailed from war-torn regions. But this week, the International Olympic Committee said that Iraq is expected to sit out the 2008 games in Beijing.