Curling update

I am now a substitute curler for one of the Flaherty rinks at the Frogtown Curling Club.  I have curled twice, not enough to actually remember all of the things I learned back when we curled regularly.  I have curled plenty enough though to spend three or four days limping around with curling muscle pain.  It turns out that bicycle fitness is not of much use in curling.

Here are my two favorite curling videos, the first of actual curling, the second a music video from a Canadian band demonstrating a pretty comprehensive curling vocabulary and familiarity with the atmosphere at the club.

Good curling, eh?  Well, by the yellow team anyway.  Red throws a couple of brutal misses.

At about 2:30 the commentator mentions the possible 8 for the first time.  When red rolls her last rock out of the house at about 3:50 you can hear the sudden excitement in the building.  Apparently even Kevin Martin, the greatest curler of all time, competing on a nearby sheet, stopped to watch the historic 8.

And for any of you who may not have seen this the Weakerthans, a Winnipeg indie rock group:

Now the lounge is full of farmers
For the 7:30 draw.

Figures of two rinks battling an extra end.

As they peel a corner guard.

Now the senior bonspiel winners
Circa 1963
Are all staring glaring disapprovingly
From their frame in that old photograph
At me.

And I know you're out there waiting
For an answer I can't give you
So tell me

Why?
Why can't I draw right up to what I wanna say
Why can't I ever stop when I wanna stay
I roll right thought our years
I drift right though our months
I slide right through our days
I'm always throwing hack weight.

I'm always throwing hack weight.