In For the Drama! The Sochi Olympics, Day 1-ish

Yes! The Olympics are back! And with them come the answers to questions we were all wondering about, such as what the Norwegian curling team will be wearing.

Don’t act like you’re not impressed

Ah yes, the ridiculous costumes, the drama, the cheesy spotlight pieces by NBC, the inspirational Visa commercials narrated by Morgan Freeman… I love it all and will pretty much watch whatever they show. For instance, even though I’m convinced that all these new extreme skiing and snowboarding events are being added solely so that the US can win more medals, I was glued to the TV anyway. (Okay, I confess: I watched them partly because I was just waiting for figure skating to come back on.) By the way, how much does it suck to crash and get injured before the games even officially begin? Poor Heidi Kloser. Anyway, I’m glad the Olympics are back, and that I actually have the chance to really watch them for the first time in years. Even with all the trouble going on over in Sochi, it’s really about the athletes and I’m eager to watch them do their best. (And I really hope the LGBT athletes kick ass a la Jesse Owens in 1936, silencing the critics and making Putin go home and cry his bigoted heart to sleep. Ha!)

To make this somewhat Hawaii-related: one of the local news stories that came on after the opening ceremonies was about crossfit. Specifically “the new craze that’s sweeping Hawaii and the nation!” You’ve got to be kidding me. I know Hawaii is behind in just about everything, but really? Where on earth have you been for the last five or seven years?! (I can’t remember exactly when crossfit became the mantra of gym rats who look down on those of us who “only” run/swim/bike/play sports/do other activities that don’t involve kettlebells.) I feel like crossfit has been around forever.

But back to the Olympics. It’s too bad that all the commentators are focused on the ring that didn’t open, because I thought the opening ceremony was quite beautiful, especially the history part. (Another confession: I was really into pre-Soviet Russian history back in the day, read Tolstoy and Pushkin as a teenager, and picked my college based in part on its Russian program. One of the novels I hope to publish someday is even set in St. Petersburg right before the revolution. I could have watched the War and Peace ballet all night.) Plus, you have to admit Russia has a pretty bad ass national anthem. It gives me a sudden urge to watch “The Hunt for Red October.”

Captain Ramius gives his seal of approval.

The (Radio) Gods Must Be Crazy

I had intended to make my first real blog post about the horrors of driving in Hawaii, but I soon realized that I’d have to write a dissertation in order to capture just how painful of an experience it is.  And I’ve lived in SoCal and the Deep South!  So I figure I’d better start small.

One listen to the radio – and spending at least an hour each day stuck in traffic affords plenty of opportunity to do so – reveals one of the many ongoing themes of Hawaii life: this place is way behind the rest of the world.  Some may be fine with that and consider it a part of the charm of living here.  I’ve even found myself thinking along those lines when I’m in a generous mood… and then I’ll turn on the radio to find something to sing to while I’m crawling along Nimitz highway, and upon hearing fucking Bruno Mars again any warm fuzzies of island life fizzle out like my afternoon plans.  (Confession: I actually don’t mind Bruno Mars – his music isn’t my cup of tea but I’d much rather listen to him than boring Jack Johnson, who was the “local boy who made it big in the music world so now we must play one of his songs every 20 minutes” the first time I lived in Hawaii.)  There are only a handful of Top 40 stations here, and I’m pretty sure they all have the same ten songs in their inventory.  It’s horrifying how often one can switch between two (or more!) stations and hear the same song being played.  The worst part?  The songs they play ad nauseum are the ones that were big on the radio for the rest of the world 3-6 months ago.  So if you’ve just come from a visit to the mainland, or if you regularly download the latest hits onto your phone or iPod, be prepared to be assaulted by the songs you’ve already heard played to death and have gotten sick of hearing.  Why am I still hearing “Blurred Lines” on the radio like it just came out yesterday?

Power 104.3 is by far the worst offender, in my opinion.  I’m pretty sure they have fewer songs than anyone else in their inventory, are shameless about playing the same artist several times in one hour, and have a terrible habit of picking one several-months-old, not-so-great-the-first-100-times song and playing it incessantly.  (Currently “Clarity” by Zedd, which I swear comes on every time I get in my car.)  They also do this annoying thing where they latch onto a song that came out ages ago – but not so long ago that people are nostalgic to hear it again.  A while back I was guaranteed to hear Akon’s “I Wanna Love You” at least once a day during my drive home.  Ugh.

The other station I listen most often to is Star 101.9, which is better about mixing up their music but not by much.  Being an alternative/90s station they generally have more of a selection, but they tend to get caught in the same trap of playing the same artists repeatedly (Third Eye Blind?  Come on, man.)  To switch it up, I’ve been listening to the dance station 95.9 even though I’ve never had a huge interest in EDM.  It’s been a nice change, to my surprise, and oddly enough I’ve found it kind of soothing to listen to while stuck in traffic.  Certainly more so than hearing “When I Was Your Man” for the umpteenth time.  The only problem is that they need to get a better broadcasting antenna or something, because the station cuts out almost as soon as I leave the Honolulu city limits.

Eh, oh well.  I suppose I could just download more music to listen to in the car, but when you’re stuck in traffic all the damn time you tend to wear out your playlists pretty quickly.  I guess the other alternative is to learn to like Island Music…