I found this image/story on my favorite Universal Sports blog, Mr. Universe, of whom I may have already mentioned I am jealous because I want his job.
Basically, these two Polish snowboarding mavens inexplicably rocked ‘staches and patches on the podium at the snowboarding World Cup event in Bardonecchia, Italy last week.
Paulina Ligocka-Andrzejewska was the first to display face fuzz after coming in third for the halfpipe competition. The next day, teammate Katarzyna Rusin showed up with her own manliness after winning the slopestyle event.
According to Rusin’s blog, the facial decoration is an “Adam Małysz moustache.”
Who is that?
Małysz is a Polish ski jumper—one of the greatest—with 4 Olympic medals, 4 World Championships and 4 World Cup titles (the record) to his name.
The facial hair certainly is a match. Not sure why the stunt though…? Answers or theories are welcome.
In the meantime, for those leaning towards a fully bearded and mustachioed look on the slops… You need this hat. Or even if you just live in Brooklyn and enjoy getting weird looks.
Lost at E Minor is full of hot fashion (and other creative realms) tips like this one, and it’s my latest favorite place to browse away my time.
Well, Deborah Anthonioz of France was not digging the celebratory expressionism. The French do not believe in wasting champagne (assuming that was real champagne, of course). They also take a good head of hair pretty seriously. We don’t call it a coif because the Anglos thought it up.
This is what I took away from Shaun White‘s recent appearance (10/29) on the Late Show with David Letterman.
He was promoting his latest video game. It’s for skateboarding. I know nothing about it. I just know that Shaun White is a better product than the Olsen twins—and they had that tied up for a really long time.
Shaun White and David Letterman on the Late Show/CBS.com
Anyway, White was his usual affable self on the show (probably a skills set stemming from having had a sponsor since he could walk or some such thing), encouraging people to give snowboarding at least three days if they are going to try it, telling Dave to just give his seven-year-old kid a helmet and let him loose, and getting stoked.
Letterman opened by stating, “I watched the Olympics—how cool was that?”
Yadda, yadda, yadda, news from months and months ago and then down to it:
“I just tell everyone: give it three days, you know and really commit to it. And if it’s not your thing, then you know, walk away. But you don’t have to do what I’m doing to have a good time.”
Letterman senses free lessons.
“But now wait a minute so you’re saying, if when we finally get some snow and I get a guy like you or somebody to teach me how to snowboard, it’ll take three days?”
“Ahh, I would say at least give it three days… you know, you gotta give it a couple days.”
It turns out that Letterman senior and junior and have been alpine skiing for a two seasons now and Dave is considering the switch because, “the people that I’ve talk to that have switched to snowboarding say they’re never looking back. That it’s so much more fun than alpine skiing—and why is that?”
“There’s something about it, there’s kind of like a flow to the sport.”
On the other hand, “You know when you’re a beginning skier like me there’s nothing scarier than that sound of a snowboard sliding on ice behind you, and you’re just waiting to have your pelvis shattered!”
There are few things as cringe-worthy as the phrase ‘shattered pelvis.’
They moved on to White’s third board-related activity: surfing.
“You know, every time I see one of these surfing documentaries—and by God I’ve seen them all—everybody talks about the stoke.”
“The stoke,” repeated White, nodding wisely.
“Yeah. And I wanna be stoked.”
“I could see that, I could see that,” stroking his chin as Letterman continues to rile himself up.
“But you know what I’m talking about? I think there’s something missing in my life. I’m 63—I don’t think I’ve ever been stoked!”
Despite all this curiosity about being stoked, however, Letterman remains reluctant to set his kid loose on a skateboard.
“Aw, just give him a helmet and let him go.”
“Will you come up to the house?”
“I’ll come help you out.”
“Alright.”
“Least I could do.”
“So you’ll come up to the house.”
“I would love to.”
“I’m talking about tonight.”
Wah, wah, waaaaah. White did not seem too confident about that timeline, but in my dream world, Harry Letterman got a skateboarding lesson from Shaun White just in time for terrorizing people on Halloween.
***
Postscript: Amar’e Stoudemire’s Top Ten (reasons he is excited to play for the New York Knicks) was pretty amazing.
Shaun White appears to be the most laid back Olympian the world has ever seen. He also makes no bones about the fact that yeah, I dreamed it would be this way and it is. I saw it all and then I made it happen. Just like that. It doesn’t even sound like he’s bragging, he’s just sayin’, just sayin’ how it is, and how it is how he dreamed it.
White obviously came into the games as more than the gold medal favorite. He might as well have already had the gold around his neck, people were just waiting to see what kind of a show the world would get in exchange for the Olympic hardware. In an interview with Jay Leno, White talked about his beacon-like hair and the impossibility of hiding, giving his hair a sassy flip (by the way, if he sold hair products I would probably buy them–if my hair had that kind of body, let me tell you…). He recounted stories of fans from all corners of the world stopping him in Vancouver, “people from Norway would be like, ‘You’re the one to beat, right?'”
Imagine that he is affecting a Nordic accent.
Asked about his second gold medal Olympic experience, White said that it was like “being able to relive the wildest experience of your life all over again… right down to the face mask I was wearing” (which, PS, is kind of weird and bandit-like).
Of course the question that every interviewer has for Shaun is about that second trip down the pipe– the one that he didn’t really have to take since the gold medal was already sewn up by his first score. Again, the phrase, “just like I dreamed it” makes its appearance right before statements like, “I’d always pictured this moment” of having that victory lap and wanting to do something outstanding, “and I just thought it was time to lay it down.”
We all know what followed.
“I’m the only one to be doing it. I’m proud it say it’s my best trick.”
White showed the world his super secret double McTwist 1260, ” [his] best friend and worst enemy” for the most astounding of victory laps. Chris Collinsworth named the moment his fourth favorite of the games, exclaiming that it was “a little bit like going to an NBA slam dunk contest… it was outrageous!”
What else did Shaun White dream? He dreamed of his second Rolling Stone cover, of course: “To be honest, I had dreamed that … What would I do this time?” So he has channeled his inner Jimi Hendrix. He lit his snowboard on fire (instead of his guitar) and just went crazy– “it was bizarre.”
Yeah, a little.
Speaking of guitar… remember that time he air guitared to the “Star-Spangled Banner” at his medal ceremony? George Lopez brought it up during his late night interview with White, playing a clip and noting that some people had been upset.
“It was funny because I was caught in the moment… I think I got lost in the moment and was just feeling it.”
And then Lopez gave him a guitar and White played a few bars of the national anthem, saying “I dabble, I dabble,” regarding his musical prowess.
Lopez decided to close by simply stating, “You’re badass.”
White has also been the only person– to my knowledge– who has illuminated the design conceit behind the Vancouver 2010 medals. Apparently they were all cut from the one large picture, sort of like puzzle pieces that one could in theory fit together to recreate the whole. I have to say that this information really improves my reception of the Vancouver medals which are otherwise fairly unaesthetic.
Other revelatory news comes to us from White’s online video interview with Rolling Stone. It is obviously about his hair, and let’s face it that is some really nice luscious lady hair– it just is. And apparently that is just the way the hair goes: “I don’t really do much to it… the stylists [for shows he goes on] are always like ‘Ooooohh, look at that hair!’ I’m running this new product called ‘water,’ it’s right out of the tap… I don’t really do much to it, I just let it go.”
If I just let my hair go… it looks nothing like that. Or like ‘presentable’ even.
On the upside, based on the myriad of interviews that have touched on the hair, I know that I am not the only one who is jealous. Charmaine is too.
But back to snowboarding.
White says that he will for sure see his quadriennial fans in Sochi. With a sport as new as snowboarding it’s hard to figure a timeline for White’s career: “I’m not sure [how long it is possible to keep doing this]… I’m gonna find out I guess.”
So to clarify, we’re going for a third Rolling Stone cover here folks, as long as things stay fun: “I always just imagined that I would stop competing when it wasn’t fun anymore… there’s no way I could do it unless I really wanted it.”
Start brainstorming for that third cover, OK? Great.
Let this serve as your reminder that this week will feature hysterical Olympic “Vancouverage” by Stephen Colbert. Obviously the show is hilarious as usual, but here’s the rub: the 11:30 time slot interferes with prime Olympic coverage on NBC. So as a PSA, I give you the Colbert Report rerun times: 2 am, 9:30 am, 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm, for your viewing pleasure. Me? I favor the 1:30 pm and then go right into the Ellen Show, provided that afternoon Olympic coverage beyond curling (which I can only watch so much of, having no idea whatsoever how it works) has started.
On a related note… I’m clearly an unemployed recent grad student and have a myriad of choices before my wide open days… ahem.
To inaugurate this first ‘Couv episode Colbert opens with, “You all just won a gold medal for stroking my ego.” And we’re off!
Favored quips about Canada, sure to be appreciated by ice-hole roommate Greg?
“Europe with normal toilets.”
“This being Canada, I will get up close and personal with a dead moose” (as foretold).
“Oh what a blinding white light! Looks like a Canadian took off his shirt.”
“What we call patriotism, they call loving Canada,” something he found out thanks to his English-to-English dictionary.
Lastly, regarding the various warm weather issues: “Here’s a fun fact about this riding: it doesn’t snow here.”
And last night’s guest? The ever entertaining Shaun White who, incidentally, rang the opening bell on Wall Street this morning where he brandished his Vancouver gold.
colbertnation.com
The two chatted about White’s awesome-yet-expected gold medal performance and his double mctwist 1260, which White gamely described as “very involved… just as tough to do as to say it,” an apt closer for his victory lap. Colbert’s version of a victory lap? “I would have just scooted down on my butt and gone, ‘medal please’!”
Sartorially, we discover that White is a fan of the Burton snowboarding gear sported by the US team. We also find out that Burton sponsored White at age seven, at which point some of us have to wonder what we’ve been doing with our lives all these years of not being sponsored by anyone or anything. Continuing on the note of sponsorship, White embraces the obvious joke about the correlation between himself and his current sponsor Red Bull: “How much of your hair is Red Bull?” “Ahh… contractually obligated to say 100 percent… I drink it, and it just grows!”
Ever the insightful journalist, Colbert then urges White to reflect on snowboarding versus figure skating as two sports scored by a panel of judges. Colbert wonders why the figure skaters indulge in that whole kiss and cry photo op pen and why snowboarders are not criers. White figures it has to do with sartorial issues at play: “I imagine they’re sitting there thinking ‘I wore this outfit and I still didn’t win!'”
And that’s why Shaun White is a trending topic in this blog.
Lastly, ever wonder why White has that private helicopter access only half-pipe, aside from the quest for mysteriousity? He can’t go to resorts and his friends don’t like to ride with him because kids are always following him taking video on their phones, looking only through the screen view whilst trying to ride down a mountain and “it’s just carnage behind me.”
Wouldn’t it be better to just watch Shaun White do what he does rather than film him on your iPhone right before face planting? Just a thought kids.
Sometimes there are just things that need to be recounted. When you watch a lot of Olympian television a lot of those things pertain either to Scott Hamilton, duh, or Shaun White. They both say the darn’dest things with the darn’dest tone. It’s great.
This one is for redhead loving ladies, from an interview segment that aired on Extra yesterday evening: “I haven’t had time to do the whole dating thing. I’m so confused. Help me out!” Surely 100% accurate. Surely.
And that second run down the half-pipe? He confirmed to Bob Costas (oh Bob), that it was “both the savvy and the saucy thing to do.” Those are two words that I am in support always of using more frequently. Please, let us all make a team Words to Bumble effort. I want to see a trending topic “savvy & saucy.” Let’s do it.
Regarding rumors that White is hoping to get an invite to the Obama White House? True. Bob invited him to give a personal plea on the air, so Shaun goes, “Yo, Obama…”
He then proceeds to talk about how he met Biden and that Biden is a cool guy.
And finally, let’s all revel in our favorite Shaun White moment. You know what I’m talking about: Shaun doing a mean air guitar to the national anthem at the half-pipe medal ceremony. Really? Oh yeah. Really.
If you check out the official NBC video you can only see the air guitar from behind, right around 4:37-42ish, which is weird because on-air they showed the frontal shot and it was hilarious. Oh snowboarders…
Oh and he’s over being called the ‘Flying Tomato;’ he now prefers ‘Animal.’ Like the Muppets character. Uh huh.
Wild guess: last night was one of the most watched of the Olympics thus far. People stayed up late, and they don’t regret it. Shaun White exhibited the never-seen-before Double McTwist 1260. As he said beforehand: “You’re in for a treat. It’s gonna be heavy.” Not a lot of words other than “epic” are appropriate.
Quick recap: White’s first trip down the half-pipe was awesome to begin with. If you’ve seen the AT&T commercial of a snowboarder [Gretchen Bleiler] catching air into outer-space… well that now seems a little less far-fetched. Based on the first run. And then after hearing that he’d already secured gold before his second run (based on his first dominating the field even after the other contenders had a second try), he just dropped in and owned. The moment the world, and especially that commentator had been watching for . Up until that moment commentators kept noting how “conservative” White was being, prompting tweets such as:
@kmwrather Did not realize one could get so much air whilst snowboarding. Holy Cow. But that was being conservative for Shaun White.
Speaking of which… my favorite topic: commentators. As Molly put it: That dude has a serious bro crush on Shaun White. It was almost inappropriate how excited he was about every breath, word spoken, and trick tricked by Shaun White. In the middle of other athlete’s runs he would wax poetic about White’s air. It was a little romantic. It was a lot weird: “It’s nice to see he’s slightly human.” What does that even mean?
Let’s hope that Shaun White doesn’t manage to muss this gold medal the way he did with his Torino medal. Oh, I’m sorry did you miss that special segment on him. Allow me to recap. Apparently at some point after the 2006 games, one of his friends was all like, “Mannn, you’re wayyy too modest! You should wear that thing around!” Instead, said friend wore the medal out with White one night. Just out, you know, partying whatever. Just you know, and Olympic gold medal. So in the morning, White discovers that the ribbon is pretty filthy, so he takes it to his mom asking her if she can wash it. Mom being a mom takes it to the dry cleaners, medal still attached and asked them to do what they could. The medal came back on a hanger and it cost $10. Apparently mom felt that was a bit much, meanwhile White says, “I was just happy to have my medal back.”
I know.
My favorite quote of the night however had nothing to do with Shaun White, but Kokubo of Japan who had a fall on his first round and thus as he appeared for his second attempt and the commentator gets all excited, “You can see the blood on his face!” It was a little gross. It was also a weirdly put statement and I typed it into my notes immediately.
Also, I’ve become a big fan of Peetu Piiroinen of the “Finnish Mafia.” He came in for the silver medal. Why do I like him? His name is Peetu. Apparently they call the Finnish team the Finnish Mafia. Did you not note that? Hi. Also, as per medal ceremony footage where you finally see him sans helmet, he’s kind of an albino looking fellow. Gets better and better.
Other fun notes, Louie Vito of team USA was on Dancing with the Stars, so apparently that’s thing for Olympics athletes? I might be coming to this party late, but it’s news to me. Maybe he and Apolo Ohno should have a dance off once their events are over. Like an exhibition event. Just a thought.
To close, another sartorial conundrum has been presented by the American snowboarding outfits. Let’s talk about those gloves. They first came to my notice when Louie Vito flashed them at the camera, hands open, side-by-side the fingers/palms make up an American flag. It’s the most truckerific accessory. Why Burton? Why? Oh well, at least the ladies who are qualifying today have really nice fuzzy hats. I kind of want one.
The figure skating commentary was out of control last night. At one point, Scott Hamilton was describing a pair who had a particularly rough year (possibly the Germans, but I’m not sure) and actually spoke these words: “a nightmare covered in molasses.”
That is not an actual phrase that people use, Scott. I mean, I love you, but really? Really? No. And then throughout the entire final program (turned out to be the gold medal performance), the commentators were just gasping through the entire thing. Gasping, saying nothing useful. It was very distracting and led to the following such tweets:
@SlateOlympics In case you missed Scott Hamilton’s color commentary: “Ohhhhhh. Errrrrrffff. Arrrhrhgghggh.” Incisive!
@JohannaAP25 Fantastic end to pairs skating! Despite the gasp-parific commentary. #olympics
@kmwrather @JohannaAP25 Right?!? I was on my computer and looked up thinking, what is Mary Hart doing gasping on this commentary!?
Out of control.
And for those of you who live under a rock, the actual competition was delightful and the win by Chinese pair Xue Shen and Hongboe Zhao, the sentimental favorites who finally broke Russian dominance of the sport and took gold. Also enjoyable was another Chinese pair (Jian Tong and Qing Pang) skating to music from Man of La Mancha, show tune for the evening. Love the occasional appearance of a show tune, they go so well with sequins.
Secondly, let’s discuss the Team USA snowboarding uniforms that legit look like jeans. Turns out they are (and thank goodness, because for a moment I was truly concerned about the state of the world) actual gortex pants. Pretty convincing though as you watch the events. And there are the red, white and blue plaid jackets which are supposedly some sort of Ivy-League-life-esque reference? Sure. Thanks Burton…? According to ESPN, it’s the anti-uniform or something. Preferable to those pinstriped affairs of Salt Lake Torino, sure, but endlessly mind boggling. We had to Google it whilst the men’s snowboard cross was going down. Really.
In the meantime, for those leaning towards a fully bearded and mustachioed look on the slops… You need this hat. Or even if you just live in Brooklyn and enjoy getting weird looks.
Words to Bumble 
Shaun White Is Willing to Teach David Letterman’s Son to Skateboard
This is what I took away from Shaun White‘s recent appearance (10/29) on the Late Show with David Letterman.
He was promoting his latest video game. It’s for skateboarding. I know nothing about it. I just know that Shaun White is a better product than the Olsen twins—and they had that tied up for a really long time.
Shaun White and David Letterman on the Late Show/CBS.com
Anyway, White was his usual affable self on the show (probably a skills set stemming from having had a sponsor since he could walk or some such thing), encouraging people to give snowboarding at least three days if they are going to try it, telling Dave to just give his seven-year-old kid a helmet and let him loose, and getting stoked.
Well, yeah, we know.
Yadda, yadda, yadda, news from months and months ago and then down to it:
“I just tell everyone: give it three days, you know and really commit to it. And if it’s not your thing, then you know, walk away. But you don’t have to do what I’m doing to have a good time.”
Letterman senses free lessons.
“But now wait a minute so you’re saying, if when we finally get some snow and I get a guy like you or somebody to teach me how to snowboard, it’ll take three days?”
“Ahh, I would say at least give it three days… you know, you gotta give it a couple days.”
It turns out that Letterman senior and junior and have been alpine skiing for a two seasons now and Dave is considering the switch because, “the people that I’ve talk to that have switched to snowboarding say they’re never looking back. That it’s so much more fun than alpine skiing—and why is that?”
“There’s something about it, there’s kind of like a flow to the sport.”
On the other hand, “You know when you’re a beginning skier like me there’s nothing scarier than that sound of a snowboard sliding on ice behind you, and you’re just waiting to have your pelvis shattered!”
There are few things as cringe-worthy as the phrase ‘shattered pelvis.’
They moved on to White’s third board-related activity: surfing.
“You know, every time I see one of these surfing documentaries—and by God I’ve seen them all—everybody talks about the stoke.”
“The stoke,” repeated White, nodding wisely.
“Yeah. And I wanna be stoked.”
“I could see that, I could see that,” stroking his chin as Letterman continues to rile himself up.
“But you know what I’m talking about? I think there’s something missing in my life. I’m 63—I don’t think I’ve ever been stoked!”
Despite all this curiosity about being stoked, however, Letterman remains reluctant to set his kid loose on a skateboard.
“Aw, just give him a helmet and let him go.”
“Will you come up to the house?”
“I’ll come help you out.”
“Alright.”
“Least I could do.”
“So you’ll come up to the house.”
“I would love to.”
“I’m talking about tonight.”
Wah, wah, waaaaah. White did not seem too confident about that timeline, but in my dream world, Harry Letterman got a skateboarding lesson from Shaun White just in time for terrorizing people on Halloween.
***
Postscript: Amar’e Stoudemire’s Top Ten (reasons he is excited to play for the New York Knicks) was pretty amazing.
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Filed under Commenting, Ponderings, Television, [Obscure] Winter Sports
Tagged as David Letterman, Late Night, Shaun White, skateboarding, snowboarding