What's the Most Amazing Sporting Achievement?

[Jaded]

Just seen a guy with no arms do the 100m crawl.

[clarion]

"Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!"

Well, that an auto-Godwin if ever I saw one.

More of a response to the automatic assumption of the superiority German culture that defines a certain class and time.

Are you a bot?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Me, getting down the stairs this morning. Every bit of me aches so badly I can hardly feel my hip in comparison. 

[Exit Stage Left]

"Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!"

Well, that an auto-Godwin if ever I saw one.

More of a response to the automatic assumption of the superiority German culture that defines a certain class and time.

Are you a bot?

A bot would go off topic wildly, posting about  Beethoven and Mozart in a thread about sporting acheivement.
I've responded by giving an example of 'low' culture which also embodies very high levels of the spatial and temporal awareness that I most admire, rather than the more 'classical' running, jumping and throwing events. I can admire the austerity of the classical worlds of sport and music, but I'm not really a Germanophile, as I find Kultur too mechanistic and illiberal, too robotic really, it needs a few sequins to take the edge off it.

[clarion]

Ok, so your wild xenophobic stereotyping is all your own work.  Fair enough, we know where you stand, Mr Fawlty.

[Exit Stage Left]

Ok, so your wild xenophobic stereotyping is all your own work.  Fair enough, we know where you stand, Mr Fawlty.

Should you wish to debate the role of Kultur in the response to liberalism in the German empire, and it's influence on the emergence of totalitarianism, there's always POBI. I'm by no means a Germanophobe, but like many cyclists, I'm a Francophile at heart.

[clarion]

And, should you wish to Godwinise, POBI may be a better place for it, though it still wouldn't be welcome.

[Exit Stage Left]

And, should you wish to Godwinise, POBI may be a better place for it, though it still wouldn't be welcome.

And you can keep your stereotyping of my opinions as wild xenophobia to yourself, that would be especially welcome.

[clarion]

People can draw their own conclusions.

[Exit Stage Left]

People can draw their own conclusions.

Which is that my admiration of German Kultur is tempered by its role in the evolution of the idea of German cultural superiroty, which stands in the way of my being a Germanophile. And that the role of the 1936 Olympics in defining the 'Kraft Durch Freude' tone of the mainstream events transfers my attention to those event events which display more 'Joie de Vivre'.
I'll just have to learn to live with that view of the world I suppose.

[clarion]

So now you are trying to associate Beethoven with fascism?  Go read some Gollancz.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Get a room, you two.

[Exit Stage Left]

So now you are trying to associate Beethoven with fascism?  Go read some Gollancz.

It's not until Heather's choir got an Italian conductor that I learned that the Cherubini Requiem was performed at Beethoven's funeral. German high culture was highly valued towards the end of the 19th Century. There was a reaction after WW2, in the sense that there was a desire to dissociate Kultur from what had happened, and Kultur was embraced as being 'Good and' German'. Choir programmes tend to focus on a repertoire that brings in a audience, which is the familiar. I've seen Heather's choir do the 9th 3 times with the Liverpool Phil. It always sells out, and I always enjoy it. It would be harder to mount a full performance of the Cherubini, although it deserves a wider audience.
It's debateable whether German music is seen as more serious because it is, or because we study it more. Certainly a choir with a programme consisting of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Handel will always command an audience, albeit one of a certain vintage. I do hope that ends this digression.

I'm fascinated by the links between Rythmic Gymnastics and the sort of Mass Games that they had in Eastern Europe, and still have in North Korea. It's an extreme example of the subjugation of individual expression to collective performance. The performers seem to enjoy it, in the same way that majorettes seem to enjoy themselves. It's very much in the same area I've been thinking about in terms of how rythmic gymnastics or synchronised swimming is seen as 'vulgar', while the 100 metres is a purer expression of athletic prowess. The disturbing thing to British eyes is the regimentation, but lots of cultures seem to like that, I know why we don't.
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