Iz Good Broadkast. You Like Broadkast. Here, Take Turnip. Iz Good.

*sigh*

I resent my job sometimes. Most of the time it's because it holds no regard whatsoever for customer satisfaction or occupational health and safety, but last night I added an extra little mark to my crankypants book - sometimes it makes me miss gym-related things!

Last night I had to head out the door RIGHT before Dasha's floor was to be shown on the Moscow World Cup. So I missed it. And the broadcast itself, as far as I saw it, didn't show Lauren's beam in the rotation before. No wonder I couldn't find it anywhere on Youtube. Thankfully day 2 is being replayed in an hour so at the very least I'll get the rest of the floor rotation.

What an erratic broadcast. For those of you without the joy of cable television or other frivolous things the internet is replacing, allow me to enlighten you.

In between routines or rotations, we will often be treated to a prolonged shot of a random in the audience or just the arena itself. No commentary, no nothing. Once a competitor is finished, the camera man hangs around long enough to capture them hugging their coaches....then taking a drink...then sitting down... then putting their jacket on... then looking up at the scoreboard... then walking over here....then walking over there... then shaking hands with people... then packing up their grips... all before we get to see the instant replay. Then once we get the replay, we're treated to more of Moscow's Funniest Home Videos of Gymnasts' Down-Time. When we got this during men's vault, I found myself shouting "GO BACK TO BEAM! GO BACK TO BEAM!" which all but cemented my reputation as an insane woman. I'm just short a few dozen cats and a cardigan.

As I have established, we will not always get to see all competitors in a rotation. Don't know if this is at the request of Russian producers or organisers. But it really is a let-down. Often, we will be watching a bit of MFHVoGDT when suddenly they'll cut back to the other apparatus (in last night's case, we cut back from men's vault to women's beam) when a routine is already underway. Even Staffan remarks how much of a shame it is that we missed the start of the routine.

The footage quality (in terms of image) is great but the sound quality and editing leaves a lot to be desired. For those who always wanted to know what it's like on the sidelines, the broadcast is helpful (for me, it helped me rekindle my French studies when Raphael Wignanitz talked about his 'deuxieme' vault, his first deemed 'mieux') but ultimately it doesn't do the competition a great deal of justice.

ETA: Speaking of broadcasts, I was told that P-Liddy would be on the radio in SA yesterday. Thankfully ABC Radio has put up a transcript.