There is something so exciting about the olympics. Maybe it's that they only happen once every four years. It reminds me of my life in transit four years ago, stretching my legs in a filthy super eight motel in Albuquerque New Mexico. I was moving to California.Or the time before that in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, stuck to the olive green leather sofa in my bathing suit.
Maybe it's the live editing and fancy camera work that I love. The on the spot artistry that transforms a spectacular event into one that our inferior eyes can manage.
131 years ago, Edward Muybridge devised an elaborate camera set up to capture the footwork of racing horses. To track a single stride Muybridge needed to set up a dozen stereoscopic cameras with trigger wires strewn about the track.
Now, the process of doing something like this goes unseen. Did you catch glimpse of the cameras zipping around the track at record breaking speeds? or the flawless panning on the pole vaulters? how about the still frames of the gymnasts in mid air, mid flip, twist or tumble? and the cameras mounted to the bottom of the pool?...a superb hiding spot for one that's starved for the underwater dance of a gold medal diver.
Maybe it's the spectacle that I love. The superhuman-ness of it all. The different shapes, sizes, and diets of olympic bodies.
How about you? why do you love the olympics? oohh tell me tell me! i want to know! what was your favorite olympic moment? was it Nastia Lucan's uneven bar routine? Michael Phelps' consecutive wins? that sassy tattoo hidden under his speedo? Matthew Mitchum putting the div(a) back in dive...with three twists and no splash? or was it (my personal fave) Usain Bolt's sick dance moves?
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