Though I’m not sure why I bothered, since it’s done nothing but irritate me since the beginning of the individual events, I watched the Olympic gymnastics tonight and watched the two American girls go first and second on the balance beam.

It was a nice thing to see, but what was even better was the recording of the Star Spangled Banner that they used, at a better tempo!!

It’s the little things in life.

Tonight I watched a Chinese gymnast land on her knees and still score higher than several other gymnasts who landed on their feet and win a bronze medal. (This on top of the Chinese age controversy.) Of course, the nationalist side of me is even more indignant that she placed just ahead of the American gymnast who finished in fourth. It seems to me that if you don’t land on your feet in an event that requires you to land on your feet, you shouldn’t win a medal unless everyone else lands on their knees as well.

It was nice to hear Béla Károlyi call it the “greatest judging error in the competition” and a “total rip-off.”

Exactly.

It’s not all bad because I did get a chance to watch Argentina and The Netherlands play a pretty darn intriguing Olympic soccer match that required a goal in the 110th minute (extra time) to send the Argentinians into the semi-finals where they will face their arch-rivals Brazil. Chances that we’ll see that match (or even highlights) on primetime? Exactly zero, but I’m sure we’ll get a chance to see a diver belly flop her way to the gold medal in diving…

After watching a bit of the Olympics, it’s been hard to avoid hearing the recording of the Star Spangled Banner that they play for any Americans who happen to win a gold medal (or eight.) I will assume that the interpretation of the anthem is chosen by the U.S. Olympic officials and then given to the organizers of the games prior to the start of the competition. I will also assume that most of these officials aren’t really musicians and don’t really think too much about their choice. (Since I initially wrote this article, I stumbled upon the Washington Post article linked at the bottom of this entry.)

My problem is that I think that the typical tempo chosen for the piece is just TOO DARN SLOW!! Every time I hear it I feel like we are mourning something rather than celebrating our country. I can understand when someone is singing the piece, as the slower tempo allows for those wonderfully obnoxious melismas that mark the beginning of most American sporting events, but when the world is listening to a recording, I personally would prefer an interpretation somewhere between 25-30% faster than the one that I’ve been hearing all week. I guess this goes back to a college band director who used to insist that we play the anthem ever faster, complaining that “it wasn’t a funeral dirge!!” as he urged us to keep up with him.

Failing that, couldn’t they at least use the Stravinsky version that is not only more interesting but apparently banned in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

(I also found a very interesting article from the Washington Post written during the 204 Athens Olympics that discusses the Peter Breiner arrangement that is currently in use. Interestingly enough, it equates the lyrical middle section with blue states as opposed to “red state thinking” that would like a more pompous “rockets red glare.” Nothing, unfortunately, about tempo…)

During the Super Bowl there was an advertisement/story released by the NFL highlighting Chester Pitts, an oboist who was working as a grocery bagger convinced one day by a San Diego State Football player to try out for the team. If you haven’t seen it, I think it’s a great spot because it brings classical music to an audience that contains a certain percentage of people who otherwise wouldn’t know an oboe from a clarinet.

I’m a bit surprised that Patty over at Oboe Insight hasn’t mentioned this in her wonderful blog, but a quick search didn’t turn anything up that I couldn’t find this over at the wonderful Oboe Insight. It was there and I apparently need to be more diligent with my searches!!

Michael Strahan turns into Superman!

The group of players that make up the 2007 Super Bowl Champion Giants (WOW!) has to be one of my favorite teams in my life as a fan. They have been resilient and have played with an infectious joy that has me as happy as I’ve been in a long time. My congratulations to the Patriots for an amazing season, but at the end, the Giants beat them playing the type of football that helped New England win their first Super Bowl against the Rams a few years ago. It was a complete and utter role-reversal for the Patriots and they paid for it in the end.

The story of the playoffs is a story of redemption and heart. The Giants lost six games this past season, four of them to the Cowboys, Packers and Patriots and beat those three in succession to win the title. It’s also the story of a coach who was almost fired and a quarterback brutalized by the media earlier in the season. They put it all together at the end of the season and pulled off a huge win. (It’s only an upset if you never believed, and I believed!)

Though it’s only a game and it’s only in the context of being a fan, I am positively giddy!!

Now I’ve got to teach in front of a NASM committee tomorrow! UGH!

Good thing Notre Dame isn’t playing New York these days!

It was announced that the Giants are scheduled to wear their Red Alternate jerseys for the game, no doubt to take advantage of the national television audience and perhaps generate a bit more income through the sale of this unusual uniform top.

If you believe what you read on the internet, the red alternate is quite controversial among fans of the team that carries the nickname ‘Big Blue’ but after looking at this poster of a charity game from 1930, it seems that the red jerseys were standard back in the the very earliest days of the organization, one of the oldest in professional football.

Over the course of my life, I have never really been much of a fan of baseball. I’m more of a football (both kinds) and college basketball guy. I have had two major dalliances with baseball fandom: once when I was a child, and once as a young adult.

As a child growing up in Connecticut, in the geographical “gray” area between the fans of the Yankees and the Red Sox, it was Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski that fired my imagination. (It probably didn’t hurt that most of my relatives were Yankees’ fans… I have always been the contrarian.) The Red Sox were the team of my boyhood and have always held a place in my heart. I was delighted to see them win a few years ago, but am ambivalent about their World Series victory last night.

As a graduate student in Colorado, I had my second fling with baseball. I went through a period where I was obsessed with the game and the Rockies in particular. It was during the early 1990’s and was an exciting period for the new expansion team: They had a new stadium, tremendous support, and a lineup loaded with power hitters like Andres Galarraga, Dante Bichette, Larry Walker, and Vinny Castillo. I also had the opportunity to work as an usher at Coors field during that stadium’s opening season, which also happened to be the last, and only time until this season that the Rockies made the playoffs.

So this World Series left me with torn emotions. It was a win-win scenario, but also a lose-lose and strangely enough, I’m left feeling the latter.

Congratulations to both teams, you piqued my interest for 2 weeks. Now I’ll go back to ignoring the sport…

If you missed my July 4th post about the United States (youth) Soccer Team at the Under-20 World Cup after they dismantled Poland 6-1, check the news, because they beat Brazil (yes, Brazil) 2-1 to win their group and move on to the knockout rounds.

Brilliant!

Happy Independence Day!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching a group of young American soccer players beat Poland 6-1 in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada, headlined by a hat-trick by the previously hyped and now much maligned Freddy Adu. It was a good match in light of the dismal performances of the senior “B” team at the Copa America in Venezuela and restored a bit of faith that one day, this country will emerge from the nether regions of world football. I now hope that Adu and several of the other promising youngsters find their way to the European leagues where they can find meaningful experience in those well-developed youth systems.

Soccer wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye yesterday, because I had a bit of a chuckle at what I consider an ill-conceived bit of journalism, MSNBC has devised a “quiz” based on the actual test that prospective citizens take as part of their naturalization process. I’m sure it was meant to be a bit of light-hearted interactivity for American readers, the scoring chart with the pithy remarks was certainly meant to be humorous, but in my estimation, fall flat.

Thanks to a little bit of common sense and some basic knowledge of American history and civics, I didn’t miss a question, but then again, it was multiple choice.

MILAN, June 11 (Reuters) - Arezzo council have asked Italy’s soccer federation to investigate Juventus’s 3-2 defeat by La Spezia on Sunday which relegated their town’s club from Serie B.

So it appears that the Arezzo football club is set to be relegated to Italy’s third division after a combination of a poor season and a deduction of points following the Italian match fixing scandal that broke across the news last summer.

Though it’s really a reflection of my own ignorance about Italian news, this marks only the second time I’ve been aware of headlines that involve Arrezo.

Sadly, the team does not have a player named Guido, thus preventing me from making a joke about how I thought that they needed a hand with his left foot.