| Scary visual places |
[Apr. 7th, 2003|01:57 pm] |
| [ | Feeling |
| | full | ] |
| [ | Reading |
| | Peter O'Donnell, Last Day in Limbo | ] |
After yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix, I've decided I'm not going to invest in Justin Wilson (see entry for 19 March). The race was a total lottery because of the weather, and there's no shame in having spun off at the corner where he had his accident (half the field went off there too, it seemed) but I just don't think he's good enough to sink my money into. He's a decent driver, far from being the embarrassment that Alex Yoong was last year, but he's not the next Fernando Alonso or Mark Webber, his two predecessors in the "highly rated Minardi youngster" slot.
Having said that, the current Webber and Alonso came badly unstuck and were lucky to have avoided serious injury. I really enjoy Formula One, and the occasional crash adds extra spice, but that race was just scary to watch. The water on the track meant that often the drivers had no control over the cars. Alonso hit Webber's wreckage at 180mph. Can you imagine being in that car? When we had our big spin-and-crash on the M25 last year we were only doing 70mph, and that was scary enough. Seeing shattered cars bouncing off concrete and wheels flying through the Brazilian sky was not my idea of sporting entertainment.
But at least no-one was hurt, unlike the Iraq friendly fire incident I wrote about at the end of yesterday's post. I linked to the transcript of John Simpson's report, but I didn't watch the video on the page. At Lisa's prompting I now have, and I can honestly say I've never seen a piece of broadcast journalism like it. There's a few establishing shots of the convoy, then the camera is on the floor and confusion reigns in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Next you see the cameraman lean over to pick up his camera and blood drips onto the lense from his face, trickling down the glass as he levels it. For the next 30 seconds - an eternity in TV time - until he wipes it clean, the shots of burning vehicles are filtered through the red smear of his blood. And just as you're recovering from the shock of that, the ammunition starts exploding in the burning vehicles around them. Finally, soberly, Simpson reports on the death of his translator who, he says, was a 25-year-old who signed up with them for friendship and in search of adventure.
The trouble with seeking adventure, whether in a racing car or in a warzone, is that often it finds you first. |
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| Comments: |
pssst, Random, you have anymore DJ codes?
StalkerofurSoul@yahoo.com
:D
Sure, but I like to at least have an e-mail address for who I give them to, just in case... *thinks*
Aha, a solution presents itself!
You should have a dozen of your own to give out very shortly... | |
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