Sports & Politics ~ Los Suns

Steve Nash on Cinco de Mayo
(Photograph © Barry Gossage/Getty Images).

I have to say that this is a creative response to the nutters in the Arizona state government . . . screw the boycotts, talk back, demonstrate citizenship and solidarity rather than embracing your status as consumer. It is impressive that not only all the players on Los Suns supported the statement, but that their owner did too. (I will also note that their opponents in the playoff series ~ Los Spurs ~ did too.*) I would like to think that they'd have gone ahead even without league approval.
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* And for an inveterate loather of the The Lakers, it is telling that their coach opposed the statement. Figures!

Golf as a Salve for Domestic Stress?

I have for many years considered golf (much like ice fishing) to be the sort of pass time that contributes to marital longevity. After all, when you get one party to a marriage out of the house for a good chunk of their (typically his) waking hours, and when you do that on a very regular basis over the course of many months, the pressures of actually living and interacting with one's spouse full time are dramatically diminished. Separation makes the heart grow fonder? Not exactly. More like golf as a soothing liniment applied generously for purposes conflict avoidance. After all, I said longevity not happiness.

I hardly am one to give advice about how to succeed at marriage, having done at least my bit to destroy two different efforts. (It will be a cold day in July before the other parties to those failures offer a similar acknowledgment.) Perhaps I ought to have heeded my father's advice and taken to the links? I doubt that a topical treatment would've helped much. In any case, all that is a prelude to saying that I found this view of professional golf as morality play truly obnoxious. The TV announcers seem to have been oblivious to their 'family values' projections and the subsequent newspaper assessment couldn't muster even a whiff of irony.*
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P.S.: After posting this I wandered over to Salon and found this truly funny take on yesterday's golf coverage.

And Another ...

Great Britain's Amy Williams celebrates her gold medal.
Photograph © Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters.

Well, I suppose I should be happy that it is not just US medalists [1] [2] who are trained well. I just came across this rarity - a gold medalist from Great Britain at the Winter games - at The Guardian.

Yet Another Wheaties cliche ...

Just in case you thought the spontaneous patriotic pose was really that, here is an image from the home town Chicago Sun Times after Evan Lysacek won the gold medal in men's figure skating. In my earlier post I asked who taught the kids to pose like this. The question was facetious - they need to conform to the cliche in order to attract the sponsors and endorsements. And - I suppose - they deserve to cash in some on years of hard work. Here I'd like to ask what self-respecting photographer would make an image of this fabrication. (This one won't do because the medal is hanging outside the frame.

World Cup Art?

William Kentridge (South Africa), Bicycle Kick (2009).

Up on my Google alerts today popped the web page for official vendor for "the FIFA 2010 Official Art Posters Edition series. Six local and eleven international artists were selected to create the poster collection. These works are a celebration of and homage to the ‘beautiful game.’" Now, I am not much a of a soccer fan - I can take it or leave it. But I do find the notion that the organizers of a major sporting event would devote at least part of their PR budget to commissioning actual artists (instead of advertising flaks) pretty impressive. The three posters I've lifted here are my favorites, but nearly all of the posters are interesting.

Kendell Geers (South Africa), Free Balling (2008).

Soly Cissé (Senegal), Football Continent (2008).

So, let's set aside commerce (each poster is an "official licensed product.") Here the boundaries between not just sports and politics, but between each of those two domains and art, are proving permeable. This must give those busy policing boundaries a real headache.

Repeat After Me ~ It is Wholly, Totally, Completely Inappropriate to Politicize the Olympics!

Just ask Lyndsey Vonn or Shaun White who, by sheer coincidence, managed to strike the exact same pose as they spontaneously celebrated their respective gold medals yesterday. I've not noticed this particular pose before - but that is surely my inattentiveness. Who teaches the kids how to get ready for the Wheaties box cover? And, of course, flag waving jingoism is not political. Athletes are only political when they mention such unpleasantness as racism or human rights violations [*].