1:06 am Right now the Chinese Beach Volleyball team is giving American beach volleyball juggernauts Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor a tit for tat, neck and neck gold medal game.
This final is a semiotic mess. What does it mean? Tanned US teammates Kerri and Misty define this sport. They are as American as Pamela Anderson, apple pie, muscle cars, The Amazing Race or Tony Hawk. Look at their names, for god's sake. This match is a test as to whether or not rock music and bikinis can make it anywhere. I could see Americans duke it out with the San Sebastian Spanish team or the Ipaneman Brazilian team, but authoritarian China? The thought boggles this red-blooded, beer-swilling North American mind. Beach volleyball is about flamboyant freedom and short shorts, no? China doesn't seem like a hang ten, ass slapping kinda place. Still, it is a big country. It has sandy beaches. Now I am doubting myself. Could this be beach volleyball's '72 showdown?
What's next, black metal in Yemen? Bluegrass in the Caucasus? Maybe the Chinese girls are super-Americanophiles. Maybe they are as confused as I am. I hope they are, cause Misty and Kerri just defended their title to the beat of some old school dance music.