Weekly Wide Web

Tape Delay and Twitter

Whenever the Olympics are held somewhere outside of American-friendly time zones, there are always going to be complaints about television coverage and spoilers. And this year, the London games (am I the only person calling the 30th Summer Olympics "the Triple-X Olympiad"?) are no exception, with some events delayed six hours or more after they happened.

It's not hard to understand why NBC pulls this sort of stunt, especially during the week, when people aren't home when Ryan Lochte is swimming or gymnastics is on, because it is a giant company that enjoys making money. But that doesn't stop people from complaining about the delays. I use NBC News' Breaking News app for my iPhone, which helpfully spoils every major plot line from the Olympics as they happen via a pop-up alert that I keep forgetting to turn off.

To its credit, NBC is sort of trying, streaming all of its coverage online, but the streams are reportedly unreliable and are only accessible to people who subscribe to cable or satellite packages. Oddly, as someone who dropped cable a while ago, I would have gladly paid around $50 to access these streams during the Olympics (what can I say; I'm a team handball fan) via an Xbox app or through a computer, commercials included—similar to what ESPN offers—but no such luck.

Tape delay won't go away soon, but hopefully, by 2014, there will be a few more digital options to avoid it.


The week on The Range

We updated you on former Gabrielle Giffords Chief of Staff Pia Carusone's new gig at Homeland Security; shared some of the strange opinions of Republican candidate Patrick Gatti; wondered why a candidate for Pinal County supervisor thought he could vote on behalf of a dead person; kept up with Freedom Summer; noted that private prisons aren't quite the money-saving device the Legislature would have us believe; suggested that Phoenix Tea Partier Wes Harris learn some relaxation techniques; and discussed the highlights of the week's political events with Carolyn Cox, Pete Hershberger, Jeff Rogers and Jonathan Rothschild on Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, with your host, Jim Nintzel.

We let you know that Reilly Craft Pizza is open downtown; previewed Lulu's Shake Shoppe, opening in October; mentioned a mead event at Borderlands Brewing; headed down to Main Gate to get some tea at the Scented Leaf; drank some (intentionally) sour beer; and made plans to check out Wilko's new cocktail menu.

We listened to a new track from San Diego act Slightly Stoopid; read an interview with Tucson cuteness connoisseur Lisa Frank; poked fun at the Arizona Daily Star's not-so-exclusive-print-exclusives; wondered if all the other books in the universe were taken when an Arizona State University professor decided to analyze the Twilight series; recommended the dark but compelling Isaiah Toothtaker album; squealed with joy over the idea of a sequel to Hedwig and the Angry Inch; suggested you go see the B-Side Players at the Rialto and Tycho at Plush; visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens; watched video of bears fishing for salmon; cried ourselves to sleep after watching a promo for Here Comes Honey Boo Boo; and tried to make sense of an Internet that demands more cat videos and marriage proposals.

Comment of the week

"... And I'm sure they all thought that Fabio deserved an Oscar for his acting."

TucsonWeekly.com commenter "Caps" doesn't think too much of one Arizona State University professor's analysis of the work of Stephenie Meyer ("ASU Is Such a Terrible University, They Think 'Twilight' Was Good," The Range, July 27).

Best of WWW

Guess what? Jimmy Boegle mentioned this in one of his Editor's Notes, but to repeat: Since we realize how much you love The Range, our daily dispatch (which is really more like a hourly dispatch during the workday, but when you pick a slogan, it helps to stick with it), we're expanding our blog empire to two, adding a music blog later this year. While we're going to grab the best music writers in town to cover local acts, bands coming to town and other related stuff, we're a little stumped on what to call the thing. If you have an idea (preferably something that references Tucson's musical history), let us know at mailbag@tucsonweekly.com.