Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Went to the Athletics event last night at the Bird’s Nest. Where did the name Athletics come from? I thought it was called Track and Field? How is Athletics a better name? To me it sounds like high school P.E., physical education. What was I being physically educated about? We were just playing sports.Anyway, I got tickets for this event to see Liu Xiang show the world that he wasn’t an anomaly, and that Chinese can succeed at sports dominated by westerners. Unfortunately as we all know, Liu Xiang wasn’t around to show the world that. I wonder where he was and what he was doing? Here’s his rival and current 110M hurdles champ Dayron Robles doing his victory lap. Couldn’t help but cheer him on even though he didn’t break Liu Xiang’s Olympic record.We had awesome seats, right down in front of the sand pit for the triple jump. As I watched the triple jump finals, I couldn’t help but think, “this is the least cool event for athletics”. I mean getting a medal in the 100M dash means your fast, the high jump shows you got hops, the 10,000M means you’ve got endurance. But the triple jump? All you do all year round is do three hops and land in a pile of sand. I’m not saying it’s easy but visually, it’s an awkward looking sport and it would probably bore my brains out if that’s all I did. Look at the photos below and you’ll see what I mean.British triple jump contender.China’s triple jumper. He came in last.cWinner of the triple jump, Nelson Evora The other big surprise of the night was the men’s and women’s 100X4 relay qualifiers. The US was favored to win both, actually all they needed was to make it into the top four and they’d be in the finals. But I guess it wasn’t in the US’s favor this year because both teams dropped their batons and came in last. What’s even weirder is that they both dropped it at the third pass off. Crazy. I felt sorry for them.The Women’s javelin finals were last night as well. Russia took home the Gold and Silver. But the coolest thing about javelin was this little remote controlled car that carries back the javelin after it’s been thrown.Jamaica’s 200M champ Veronica Cambell-BrownThe Jamaicans are making a strong presence this year in all of the raw speed sports. My favorite athlete of the games is this guy Usin Bolt, The Lightning Bolt. This kid is fast. If you saw the 100M and 200M finals you’ll know what I’m talking about. He was way ahead of everyone else, broke the record and did it all without the slightest grimace. Easy. Plus his little dances are funny. I wish I could have seen him up close. Last night was his 21st birthday and the whole stadium sang to him.My best photo of the night. Again Cuba’s Dayron Robles celebrating his win.
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Freedom! Not really, but that's at the Great Wall of China. It's a somewhat private area, since it's part of the Commune by The Great Wall complex which is about an hour or less away from Beijing, near the touristy Badaling area. Are you into the idea of architects from around Asia each designing a house that someone with a lot of money can rent? I'm sure it's packed for the Olympics. The Commune...
Freedom! Not really, but that’s at the Great Wall of China. It’s a somewhat private area, since it’s part of the Commune by The Great Wall complex which is about an hour or less away from Beijing, near the touristy Badaling area. Are you into the idea of architects from around Asia each designing a house that someone with a lot of money can rent? I’m sure it’s packed for the Olympics. The Commune is a getaway, and it’s highly developed and interesting. One thing odd is that although each of the house is meticulously made, while we toured some of the interiors, they were slightly a mess. Simple things like mopping wasn’t done ahead of time making the places look like there was a break in. But this is first world living outside of Beijing. It’s an amazing idea. Here’s a link to their site.Take a look at my flickr set. Meanwhile, here’s a couple of other shots. You can walk around sections that look like this. You can’t help but hope you’ll see something weird there, like old tools, but no, it’s been picked through 1000 times. New and old. I thought the juxtaposition was interesting. I’m not sure if they want you to shoot pics like this, but it tells the story. Otherwise, you might think you’re in Europe or walking through a spread of Dwell magazine.
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