Tuesday, May 09, 2006
..and then there's David Blaine. Pushing one's strength and endurance to the limits is nothing new for man. Marthons, Mountain Climbing, being forced to sit through Kate Hudson movies...these are all things that don't kill us and therefore make us stronger. Last night, however, we saw buffoonery in the making.
David Blaine trained with Navy Seals, lost 50 pounds and spent 177 hours underwater in an attempt to attain the world's record for holding one's breath. The record was and still is set at 8 minutes 58 seconds. Blaine came up short at 7 minutes 8 seconds.
What's the lesson to be learned here? Never try? No, that's not it. The lesson, simply put, is that Blaine is not all there and we reward his mental illness in the same way we rewarded Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O...by giving them air time and turning them into stars.
Some of his other achievements are: being buried alive for a week, being frozen in a block of ice for 61 hours, balancing on a 22 inch platform on top of a 100 foot pole and fasting for 44 hours over the Thames River in London.
Considering I'm claustrophobic, get cold at 50 degrees, don't even have enough balance to pass a field sobriety test and can't go more than several hours without food these feats are impressive. They're also painful to watch, but then again...so are Kate Hudson movies.
David Blaine trained with Navy Seals, lost 50 pounds and spent 177 hours underwater in an attempt to attain the world's record for holding one's breath. The record was and still is set at 8 minutes 58 seconds. Blaine came up short at 7 minutes 8 seconds.
What's the lesson to be learned here? Never try? No, that's not it. The lesson, simply put, is that Blaine is not all there and we reward his mental illness in the same way we rewarded Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O...by giving them air time and turning them into stars.
Some of his other achievements are: being buried alive for a week, being frozen in a block of ice for 61 hours, balancing on a 22 inch platform on top of a 100 foot pole and fasting for 44 hours over the Thames River in London.
Considering I'm claustrophobic, get cold at 50 degrees, don't even have enough balance to pass a field sobriety test and can't go more than several hours without food these feats are impressive. They're also painful to watch, but then again...so are Kate Hudson movies.
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