The Sky Was Filled With Beer
My last Preakness Infield post of the year, and first, a few notes:
1) Why write a blog post about Beer-Can Volleyball when you can post the video? And yeah, this is what journalism has come to in May of 2008: finding the center of the beer-throwing mob at the Preakness Infield, hoisting a Canon PowerShot blindly into the air, and pressing record.
2) Every time I attempted to interview someone, profanity rapidly ensued. I, in fact, was called a [Schrute]Bag, merely for attempting to capture footage of beer-can volleyball for posterity.
3) I also wrote a story on the PETA protests Saturday, which required me to ask Preakness attendees about horse death. The mood in the infield was willful ignorance of any larger societal issues.
"People in here, nobody cares," said Greg Puccio, when I asked about the death of Eight Belles. "Everybody here is too drunk to care about that horse."
"I'm not here to watch the horse racing, I'm here to get drunk and see some pretty ladies," added Raymond Crouse of Baltimore.
And, as an admitted vegetarian and someone probably not well-suited to an objective look at animal-rights causes, I found these "too drunk to care" chaps a lot more acceptable than the "that's just racing" crowd in the grandstand, who deemed the current level of horse-death a sad-but-inevitable part of the "Sport of Kings." If I could editorialize for one second: Barf.
Anyhow, see video of Port-a-Racing here, and see my bad raw footage here, and see jello wrestling and ritualized violence here, and look below for my tamer highlights.
By Dan Steinberg |
May 19, 2008; 12:47 PM ET
| Category:
Weirdness
Previous: Dmitri's Carry-Out Cafe |
Next: Dexter Manley: Blog Icon
Get This Widget >>
Posted by: Incredulous | May 19, 2008 1:30 PM
Really, Dan, why do these fools deserve so much ink? What was Pecherov doing this weekend? Surely it was more interesting that fools drink, get drunk.
Posted by: | May 19, 2008 1:45 PM
Dan, I love your blog -- but seriously, I agree. This stuff is embarrassing, what are you, 19? Are you still in college? Why are you so amused by these drunken idiots? It was cute once, but we don't need to read about morons who are indifferent to death. Enough.
Posted by: Cart | May 19, 2008 2:25 PM
Come on. This is journalism? The state of horseracing is in better shape than the outlook for newspapers and this is one of the reasons why.
Nobody wants to see horses go down, but like the British roots that the media has, you focus on the negatives, in fact you sound as if you are ready to change careers. Spend a day at Saratoga, Del Mar, Arlington, Belmont, Delaware and you'll quickly find out what quality and tradition is all about. Boone Chance.
Posted by: TM | May 19, 2008 4:32 PM
Post a Comment
We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.
I found the videos of Ida walking & sliding much more entertaining than the videos of thousands of drunk idiots getting maimed.