Me & Mr. Jones

I'm not a sports-minded person yet when you live in a household where sports are like the Holy Grail and a city obsessed with championships, well, you learn to adapt. Growing up, Rugrat was considered the "athlete" and I was the "musician." While I practiced endlessly, he played on several baseball and basketball teams and was forever outside pitching or shooting, rain or shine, winter or summer. To this day, he's a faithful Sportscenter viewer and a walking encyclopedia of sports knowledge. Consequently, I've learned to appreciate and comprehend particular sports such as basketball. Nonetheless, I still prefer to simply cruise the athletes!

On that note, I'm watching the Summer Olympics halfheartedly. I watched part of the basketball game against China, tuned into some beach volleyball and a few of the cycling tournaments. There are some hot guys in gymnastics but overall, the sport really doesn't interest me. Most of the time, the games are for background noise when I'm home.

However, the hype over Michael Phelps piqued my inquisitiveness and I tuned into some of the swim meets. Thus I found my Olympic crush. Cullen Jones. Prior to the start of the games, I had read info about him but for some reason, I never really took notice. Then I watched him in action and was relatively impressed. He's a terrific role-model for any younger African Americans interested in competitive swimming and made history with his five gold medals from past swimming competitions.

Anyway, enough preamble. He's tall (check!), slim (check!), sexy (check!) and very professional during interviews (check!) and damn, he looks fine as hell in and out of that bodysuit! (double check!)

Damn, I need to go cool off a sec! In the meantime, check out the slides above!

The Opening Ceremonies

Did anyone watch the opening ceremonies last night?

I happened to catch about two hours of it before I quit. The theatrics were absolutely stunning and I was very impressed. The last opening ceremonies I watched were the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy. I thought that was through the roof but this ceremony blew everything away! The fact that they were able to get 2008 performers to maintain the correct formations, move the large blocks, and drum on cue was awe inspiring. Because of my friends, 3 Degrees and The Divo, I'm knowledgable about most aspects of Chinese culture but still the pride with which they performed really moved me. After watching the ceremonies, I'm curious to see what London will do in 2012. On a side note, I'm hoping someday there will be an Olympics held on the continent of Africa but that probably won't be until I'm ancient and on my deathbed. Still, it's nice to keep hope alive.

I watched until the Parade of Nations and then cut it off. We're going to be saturated with the Olympics for two solid weeks, no need to drown early.

On a random side note, the Chinese people have a lot of pride in their stadium, The Bird's Nest but I couldn't help but notice last night that it sort resembled something else; sorry China, I respect your culture but the architect needs to be hit upside his head.

Lucky Friday

"Let the games begin!"