Strange news from around the world
15/09/16 05:29
After the attention that was given to the Olympics this summer, it seems a bit unfair that there hasn’t been much news coverage of another international sporting event. The World Nomad Games are begin held in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. There has been plenty of pomp and ceremony and hoopla, but so far I haven’t seen anything in the sports section of our local newspaper about the event.
The opening ceremonies alone were pretty spectacular. Held at the hippodrome, the ceremonies featured dancers and bright costumes and special lighting.and a guest appearance by actor Steven Seagal riding a horse. Impressive about the opening ceremonies were the nomads who set themselves aflame and galloped around on horses. That drew a pretty good response from the crowd. The horses had special blankets to protect them from the heat of the flames. The riders also were wearing protective clothing, but the whole show still seemed pretty scary. People are willing to go to great lengths for art and entertainment, however.
The World Nomad Games featured events not seen at the Olympics as well. As you might expect of nomads, there were horse races and even camel races, but that was pretty tame compared to some of the events. There were also high wire walking and arm wrestling competitions and fox hunting with eagles. Apparently the sacrifice of foxes for the sake of sport was deemed acceptable. After all, foxes weren’t the only animals sacrificed for the games.
The contest that caught my attention is kok-boru. It was described by one competitor as “rugby on horses,” but there is no boring football-like object to throw into the taikazan or goals. Instead they use a 70-pound, freshly decapitated goat. The game is also known as buzkashi or ogle tarts. Apparently it isn’t the strongest game for the team of American nomads. The U.S. placed seventh out of eight teams. Kyrgyzstan won gold, followed by Kazakhstan and then China. Apparently there is quite a thrill involved in riding galloping horses while carrying a goat caracas while your opponents attempt to steal it from you. It is not something that an old sheepherder from Montana understands very well. But then, I didn’t grow up living in a yurt and hunting with a golden eagle, either.
I guess this won’t be my last chance to watch the games. After the success of the first World Nomad Games in 2014, the 2016 competition was so successful that they are already talking about the 2018 games.
All of that is not to say that life around here has been boring. On Tuesday evening, we noticed water running down the street not far from our home. It turned out that the source of the leak was a broken water pipe that runs from the water main to our curb stop. It is buried in the same trench as our neighbor’s water line and it was determined that both are leaking. the solution was to excavate the water line and turn off water to both houses. I spent most of the day yesterday calling and meeting with contractors and making arrangements to get the line excavated and replaced. The backhoe is parked out front of the house and work is slated to begin at 7:30 this morning. Meanwhile, we’ve been washing up and flushing toilets with water hauled from the neighbors. If there were more of a delay, we’d probably hook up a hose from the neighbor’s home, but it appears that we’ll be back to normal by sometime around noon today. It will make me appreciate my shower a bit more.
It’s too bad we don’t live in New York City. In that place, you can purchase a season membership in the Guggenheim Museum for just $75. That means for just $150 per year my wife and I could visit the museum whenever we wanted. Of course we’d have to observe museum hours, but that admission ticket would give us equal access, along with other museum patrons, some of whom paid the $18 single admission price, to a one-person, unisex restroom that is also an exhibit. Inside of the private chamber is a fully functional 18-carat gold lavatory, titled “America,” by the Italian artist and sculptor Maurizio Cattelan. The museum bills it as an “interactive exhibit.” According to the museum, “its participatory nature, in which viewers are invited to make use of the fixture individually and privately, allows for an experience of unprecedented intimacy with a work of art.” Ahem. I guess that New Yorkers haven’t paid so much attention to a fixture since Marcel Duchamp’s avant-garde “Fountain,” a porcelain urinal, was exhibited in New York in 1917. I guess that caused a sensation in the art world.
I don’t know how the museum is avoiding the constant ringing of the pun, “You’d have to be pretty flush to purchase that toilet.” Perhaps the docents are just getting used to it.
Not being an expert on fine art, it seems to me that despite the temporary inconvenience of having no running water in my house, I probably don’t need to put any effort into visiting that exhibit.
Crazy news stories from around the world, however, help me to put my own week in perspective. With a higher-than-expected truck repair bill on Monday, having the water to our home turned off on Tuesday, having a crown on a front tooth come loose on Wednesday and Thursday being the deadline for our quarterly federal income and self employment taxes, Friday promises to be the high point of the week. Life is bound to be getting better by Sunday for sure.
The Guggenheim museum says its exhibit is aimed at “making available to the public an extravagant luxury product seemingly intended for the 1 percent.” It is pretty clear that I’m a member of the 99 percent. I’ve no interest in shopping for such a fixture. Going a couple of days without running water gives me new appreciation for those who live in such circumstances every day. Even when I feel like complaining, I don’t have it that rough. And, like I say, it seems that I have a weekend coming that is gong to be pretty great.
The opening ceremonies alone were pretty spectacular. Held at the hippodrome, the ceremonies featured dancers and bright costumes and special lighting.and a guest appearance by actor Steven Seagal riding a horse. Impressive about the opening ceremonies were the nomads who set themselves aflame and galloped around on horses. That drew a pretty good response from the crowd. The horses had special blankets to protect them from the heat of the flames. The riders also were wearing protective clothing, but the whole show still seemed pretty scary. People are willing to go to great lengths for art and entertainment, however.
The World Nomad Games featured events not seen at the Olympics as well. As you might expect of nomads, there were horse races and even camel races, but that was pretty tame compared to some of the events. There were also high wire walking and arm wrestling competitions and fox hunting with eagles. Apparently the sacrifice of foxes for the sake of sport was deemed acceptable. After all, foxes weren’t the only animals sacrificed for the games.
The contest that caught my attention is kok-boru. It was described by one competitor as “rugby on horses,” but there is no boring football-like object to throw into the taikazan or goals. Instead they use a 70-pound, freshly decapitated goat. The game is also known as buzkashi or ogle tarts. Apparently it isn’t the strongest game for the team of American nomads. The U.S. placed seventh out of eight teams. Kyrgyzstan won gold, followed by Kazakhstan and then China. Apparently there is quite a thrill involved in riding galloping horses while carrying a goat caracas while your opponents attempt to steal it from you. It is not something that an old sheepherder from Montana understands very well. But then, I didn’t grow up living in a yurt and hunting with a golden eagle, either.
I guess this won’t be my last chance to watch the games. After the success of the first World Nomad Games in 2014, the 2016 competition was so successful that they are already talking about the 2018 games.
All of that is not to say that life around here has been boring. On Tuesday evening, we noticed water running down the street not far from our home. It turned out that the source of the leak was a broken water pipe that runs from the water main to our curb stop. It is buried in the same trench as our neighbor’s water line and it was determined that both are leaking. the solution was to excavate the water line and turn off water to both houses. I spent most of the day yesterday calling and meeting with contractors and making arrangements to get the line excavated and replaced. The backhoe is parked out front of the house and work is slated to begin at 7:30 this morning. Meanwhile, we’ve been washing up and flushing toilets with water hauled from the neighbors. If there were more of a delay, we’d probably hook up a hose from the neighbor’s home, but it appears that we’ll be back to normal by sometime around noon today. It will make me appreciate my shower a bit more.
It’s too bad we don’t live in New York City. In that place, you can purchase a season membership in the Guggenheim Museum for just $75. That means for just $150 per year my wife and I could visit the museum whenever we wanted. Of course we’d have to observe museum hours, but that admission ticket would give us equal access, along with other museum patrons, some of whom paid the $18 single admission price, to a one-person, unisex restroom that is also an exhibit. Inside of the private chamber is a fully functional 18-carat gold lavatory, titled “America,” by the Italian artist and sculptor Maurizio Cattelan. The museum bills it as an “interactive exhibit.” According to the museum, “its participatory nature, in which viewers are invited to make use of the fixture individually and privately, allows for an experience of unprecedented intimacy with a work of art.” Ahem. I guess that New Yorkers haven’t paid so much attention to a fixture since Marcel Duchamp’s avant-garde “Fountain,” a porcelain urinal, was exhibited in New York in 1917. I guess that caused a sensation in the art world.
I don’t know how the museum is avoiding the constant ringing of the pun, “You’d have to be pretty flush to purchase that toilet.” Perhaps the docents are just getting used to it.
Not being an expert on fine art, it seems to me that despite the temporary inconvenience of having no running water in my house, I probably don’t need to put any effort into visiting that exhibit.
Crazy news stories from around the world, however, help me to put my own week in perspective. With a higher-than-expected truck repair bill on Monday, having the water to our home turned off on Tuesday, having a crown on a front tooth come loose on Wednesday and Thursday being the deadline for our quarterly federal income and self employment taxes, Friday promises to be the high point of the week. Life is bound to be getting better by Sunday for sure.
The Guggenheim museum says its exhibit is aimed at “making available to the public an extravagant luxury product seemingly intended for the 1 percent.” It is pretty clear that I’m a member of the 99 percent. I’ve no interest in shopping for such a fixture. Going a couple of days without running water gives me new appreciation for those who live in such circumstances every day. Even when I feel like complaining, I don’t have it that rough. And, like I say, it seems that I have a weekend coming that is gong to be pretty great.