Sunday 25 May 2014

Passion Lost


 
I just finished watching the Indy 500 on television.  I have to say that there was a time in my life when that was really important.  There was a time when I looked forward to it all week.  There was a time when I planned my snacks for the big event, like I do for the Grey Cup.  That time seems like a long time ago.  I guess it just doesn't capture my imagination like it used to.

I still like motorsports.  I dedicatedly watch the British Touring Car Championships.  I love the speed and the technology.  When I write like that, it is hard to understand why the 500 just doesn't do it for me.  I can hardly understand myself.

I am not going to repeat those oft cited 200 laps of left turns.  Those never made sense to me before, and they aren't going to start now.  I also am not one of those people who watch for crashes.  Thankfully safety technology has cut down on the fatalities in auto racing.  Sadly, they have not been eliminated entirely.

Maybe it is the commentary.  Despite the in car views, telemetry and abundant stats, I find some of those racing comments like nails on a chalkboard.  I don't blame the commentators entirely.  I blame them (and all commentators) for relying on cliche and hackneyed expressions, but I know that some of those are directed at less than knowledgeable and casual fans.  In this great high tech, high bandwidth TV universe, couldn't we have a secondary channel where they didn't state the obvious, didn't speak to me like I was five years old?  Let me choose, I might surprise you.

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