Drowning in Suburbia

Beating the dead horse

So, if anyone keeps an eye on me through twitter or message board I visit then this will come as no surprise to you but: I'm mad. No, not just mad, infuriated. (I'll calm down eventually)
And after some quick google searching and twitter browsing, it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

Why am I mad? Why... that's a simple easy answer and yet complicated all in one... NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics blows ass.

I don't think I really need to get into the details of their lovely tape delays for most events. Hell, I can even understand why they have such shitty coverage during their prime-time stuff. Commercials seemingly every 5 minutes, missing out on some performances/runs/etc from certain athletes, and most of all... the 3 hour giant "FUCK YOU" given to the entire country aside from the East Coast. Now...there's enough rants out there on the internet right now about the normal prime-time delay... and I agree completely with people who are ticked off as hell. I'm sorry NBC, this shit worked 12, 8...maybe even 4 years ago (I might even give you 2 for the last Summer Games!) But in this day and age of rampant twitter feeds, facebook, and general internet madness.. it doesn't work.

Now I'm not saying to NBC to change their prime-time shit... enough people have done that. But seriously... you guys have enough affiliate stations you reasonably could show the more "popular" sports on them live during the day and still come back to your bullshit 3-hours-late Prime Time showings and guess what? The people who "can't watch the Olympics during the day" would still watch it when they get home in the evening... and those that really are fanatic about it could see it live and I'd be willing to bet your ratings wouldn't be entirely devastated. But no... instead you give us live curling all the time on 3 different stations and ignore the rest of the games taking place until the evening. I'm not knocking curling (at least, not entirely), but seriously? I would have killed to been able to watch the Snowboard Cross event when it happened. Or, I dunno... the skiing events, the short track speed skating, etc...

Now... thankfully so far I've been able to watch the women's hockey games live... and the men's games I wanted to catch... so far. Including that giant "WHY IS THE USA/CANADA GAME NOT ON NBC PROPER BUT ON MSNBC?!?!" fiasco... which, I wasn't affected by, was sad to hear others were when it came to HD coverage... but then I found out that their moving it off the main station kept it so that we could ALL watch that game... at the same time.

And let me tell you now... there was nothing quite like the joy of screaming when Miller was making that series of insane saves ...and going "OH MY GOD, GET IT OUT OF THE ZONE!!!" and receiving a text from my friend over in Boston saying the exact same thing... at the same time I was yelling it. And finally when they won, practically jumping out of my chair at home with family... and receiving fanatical texts of "OMG WHOOOOO!!!!" from friends everywhere else in the country.

But I may not get to do that for ANY OTHER game Team USA plays. Instead... I'll have to avoid my non-west coast friends like just thinking of them will give me the plague. Because while they'll be watching the game as it happens, despite it actually taking place in my damn time zone, apparently I'll have to wait 3 hours for it. What. The. Fuck. As of right now... this includes the game for the Gold/Silver medals. Again, I repeat... What. The. Fuck.

Now I understand NBC can't comprehensibly show every single event live. They just can't realistically. But tape delaying the actual medal events (not the qualifiers, etc...) just seems... bad. Real bad. For ANY game, not just my beloved hockey. But admittedly... yeah, the men's hockey hurts the worst for me.

So Here's to hoping that they pull their heads out of their asses and somehow give us live coverage of the rest of the hockey games over here on the west coast... I think some of us would rather suffer without the HD footage than have to avoid the entire world for 3 hours straight. Some are speculating that if Team USA makes it into the Gold medal game, we'll see a similar switching around of stuff so that the people on the west coast don't march into NBC's offices with a bunch of torches and pitchforks. Or... would that be hockey sticks?

Come on NBC... I know you have offices located in Los Angeles... and if there's one thing I have learned and would love for you to do the same it is this: ... Drunken upset LA hockey fans alone are scary. Very. Scary. But you are tempting the ire of a combined force! I know I'd be terrified if Kings, Ducks and Sharks fans all rallied up against me and came knocking and that's just California. May want to think this tape delay stuff over... it's bad enough you've got every other sports' fans against you.

*insert some... motivational clip here with Mel Gibson as William Wallace's famous "FREEDOM!!!" yell here. Why? Because... my blog. I say so.*

Ok, I think I've gotten this out of my system. I may have another rant brewing in a little under two weeks, though. When I fly across country to Florida... on Southwest airlines (save me, Kevin Smith... you're my only hope!)

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UPDATE as of 3:30 on Friday, Feb 26.

Well apparently NBC caught on to the fact they were pissing people off. I didn't know (I watched it streaming online), but apparently today's game was actually shown on Television live in all timezones.

And they announced during the game today that the Gold Medal game would be the same.

Sad thing is...this shouldn't be "news"... it should have been that way to start with. If someone can't catch a game live nowadays ...uhh Tivo or DVR to the rescue?

But either way... yay for live hockey! ...Now, if only NBC would update their schedule on the website to reflect this fact. ha ha.

How Disney Made Me a Traitor

Tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim... hockey happens. It's preseason hockey, but it's happening. I guess that makes it the perfect time to finally get something out in the air...

Hello. My name is Sarah. I live in Los Angeles, have all my life. And I am a Ducks fan.

That's right...Ducks. Not Kings. Get your torches and pitchforks ready (For the record I loathe the Lakers and the Dogers too). Guess it's a good thing that the 9th circle of hell (reserved for traitors) is frozen, huh?

How on EARTH did this happen? What has possessed me to commit such blasphemy? I blame Disney. No. Really. I do.

I've grown up in a household with people from the East Coast. New York to be specific. I can remember many instances of my dad grumbling at the TV when I was younger when the Islanders weren't quite playing their best (...I almost feel bad for him nowadays), and he always got a good laugh out of any fight that irrupted at a Islanders/Rangers game.

For some reason though... I could never get behind the Kings. I blame my parents for this (damn NY people). I knew people who were all about them, heck, how could you not? When I was a kid the Great One was on the effin team! Enjoyed watching them, but never really could bring myself to be all "WHOOO Kings!" (ew...I feel dirty typing that)

And then it happened... that fateful year. 1992. I was a huge fan of Disney movies, all of them. So...naturally, that damned Emilio Estevez with a bunch of underdog kids who end up winning movie was seen and enjoyed by me. And then they did it... next year a team appeared in Anaheim by the same name as that movie. Being the lame little Disney-loving 9 year old I was... my team was found. Now, only being a 9 year old with a television with only 13 channels in my room meant I couldn't really watch the Mighty Ducks do their thing, but I still enjoyed hearing about their wins when I did.

Well growing up, as we all do, my interests moved and waned and for a long time I didn't even really think about hockey. Still would watch a game or two if it was on the television, but didn't actively pursue it. Somewhere in college I started gaining interest again (I think a friend started playing in some local pick-up games around here about that time)...and in 2006 I heard the news that my post-college little black cold heart loved: The Ducks were no longer "Mighty" and they were no longer associated with Disney. My team had "grown up"! And with a badass new color scheme (admit it, the "eggplant" and teal combo was hideous) and having shrugged off the corporate identity that, let's admit it we've all become a little sour towards, I latched on.

With my interest piqued once more I started watching... a lot. Once again ignoring the Kings for their rivals... And they were winning. You caught the year I got excited about hockey again, right? The year I semi-randomly went ":D Yay Ducks!" again for the first time in years? Yeah... that would be the 2006-2007 season. Ha. Ha. Ha. I can't begin to express my "OMFG =D" moment that last game. I remember I jumped up and cheered like a psycho... in a room, at a home...filled with Kings fans...which meant they were all cheering for the Senators since I think most would rather take an acid bath than cheer on Anaheim. Oops... Blame Disney.

The next season I watched all I could on TV, I even ended up getting to go to my first actual live game courtesy of my mother as a birthday present. The game was at Los Angeles... Kings vs Ducks. Last game of the season for the Kings at home... and the Ducks won. And once again I was in the minority of cheering. Oops... Blame Disney again.

Last season... having a job made all the difference in the world. I actively went to a LOT of games (some of which were my first post-season games!), cheered my boys on like a crazed maniac, and genuinely had a ton of fun. Even in the beginning of the year when they weren't doing so well I cringed but held my loyalties to my team.

Now we're about to start it all up again. In a year where I now have season tickets. Madness.

So yes: Blame Disney... I know my boyfriend does. Who, by the way, is also a Los Angeles native... and is a Kings fan but apparently also likes watching the Ducks. He must...he agreed to go halfsies with me on the tickets and actually bought me a customized jersey last Christmas. ha ha. I think he's more of an outcast among the Kings fans than I am... dating a traitor like me, tsk tsk. I'm still amused over the fact that every Los Angeles fan during the playoffs last season wanted the Sharks to crush the Ducks...except for my boyfriend. At least the loathing of the Sharks is mutual between us.

So here's to this season! Filled with many a drive down to the Honda Center rather than the closer, more convenient drive to the Staples Center. Yep... Blame Disney.