Got the special ‘archery’ fifty pence piece in my coffee change this morning. It’s happened before, but it’s always a special day when it turns up…
Archives For not really archery
An occasional series devoted to needlessly picking apart the technique of people posing with a bow for the benefit of a camera.
Here we see the president of France, François Hollande, getting busy with a barebow for a lets-invest-in-sport photo op a couple of weeks before the Olympics last year.
Watch the full video here. It’s in French – don’t worry, you’ll figure it out. He meets the men’s London 2012 squad (in order of handshake: Roman Girouille, Thomas Faucheron, and Mr. Malevolent Stare himself, Gaël Prevost), and picks up an appropriately French Sebastien Flute bow. We miss the obligatory eight seconds of training famous people usually receive in these situations, but hey.
For a start, who the hell ever did some damage to the X ring in a suit? (A very good suit – Christian Dior, I am reliably informed). Arm/chest guard? Pah! You English speaking types, with your health and safety rules and your pasteurized cheese. Anyway…
‘Franny’, you are gripping the bow waaaaayyy too tightly. Head is cocked, should be straight. Rear elbow not bad – with some help – but the wrist is… oh dear. The bow is canted, and you’re leaning backwards (like I can talk). The plucked release…. ugh. You don’t play this instrument pizzicato, mon petit. Worst of all, the four-finger draw. Someone should have spotted that. But the bow arm isn’t too bad. And I suppose he scored a rouge at two metres… [slow handclap].
By the way, it doesn’t matter. You’re adding a ‘carrot’ of tax incentives for athletes who succeed at the highest level in sport for their country? You can twang that bow like a cheap guitar, my friend.
Thanks to Madame La Baronne for this one as well.
You know all that ‘archery getting popular’ stuff? And the stuff about it moving into the world of fashion? Yeah… all that. Cranked up to pec-tastic ridiculousness.
(looks like they got their bow from the same props company that supply Hermès’ runway shows…)
Thanks to Madame La Baronne for spotting this video.
Popping in, I just looked through my ‘global’ stats for today, and I’ve been by far the most popular in… Trinidad & Tobago. A place I wish I was right now, on island time, rather than the chunked-out running about this noisy bloody city. There’s a few good reasons why this blog has been so quiet for a month. But there’s more to come soon. So welcome, archers of Trinidad & Tobago, and anyone else who cares to stop by and join in. I feel shoots of spring underfoot.
Archery as plot-device in neo-noir revenge thriller? The Bride Wore Black (La Mariée était en noir) is a 1968 French film directed by François Truffaut. “It is a revenge film in which five men make a young bride a widow on her wedding day. She takes her revenge, methodically killing each of the five men using various methods.” Probably not one of his best, but hey. You can watch an edited clip of it, where the lead Jeanne Moreau turns up at the home of an artist, and he thinks she’s been sent from the model agency, right here (7 mins). Sorry, no English subs, but you’ll figure it out.
Thanks to Rob Galo.
Yay! London 2012 heroes get some award or other, and break out some serious knitwear. Ki Bo Bae has gone for a classic “Good Life” Argyle sweater, whereas Kim Bub Min (isn’t it?), has plumped for simple horizontal stripes. It can get pretty cold in Korea, I know, and who’s that little guy skiing on the backdrop?
지난 22일(금) 제 59회 대한체육회 체육상에서 수상한 양궁인들의 모습입니다! 좌로부터 연구부문 우수상 장영술(현대제철) 감독님, 경기부문 최우수상 기보배(광주광역시청)선수, 지도부문 우수상 박채순(광주광역시청) 감독님, 경기부문 장려상 김법민(배재대)선수입니다! 심판무문 장려상 문형철(예천군청) 감독님과 지도부문 장려상 김구묵(대전체고) 선생님은 개인사정으로 참석을 못하셨네요~
which the machines translate for me as:
“For the past 22 (Fri.) in the 59th for the Sports Council is the State of the body, in the award-winning athletics and archery! Left from the Research Division award Chang young drink (Hyundai steel) goggles, game division Prize prosthetic times (Chicago Office) players, the map Division Excellence Award night less than sterling (Gwangju metropolitan city administration) goggles, game division award of the Kim law min (x rematch) players! REF no award of the door Gate-type iron (yecheon Administration) goggles and guidance sector encouragement Kim Gu jelly (full) and the teacher do to attend to a personal matter.”
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Your guess is as good as mine. Hey, your guess might be better than mine. I know that ‘Ki Bo Bae’ can come out as either ‘Based Treasure’ or ‘Prosthetic Belly’ depending on which translation engine you pick. Speaking of Ki, there’s a new, gushy interview with her in English from Gwangju News. She’d like to live in London for a while? Brilliant, maybe we can persuade her to join our club…
New Tomb Raider game features archery.
The seemingly unstoppable rise of fictional characters wielding a bow and arrow continues apace. The Tomb Raider gaming franchise has had a reboot, and the very cover itself features Lara Croft holding what looks like a composite bow with ornate scrolled tips. Watch a bit of the gameplay here:
There’s a clear bowhunting meme, plus it looks like you might be able to ‘augment’ your bow in the game, however that is going to work.
On top of that, Tomb Raider doesn’t move completely in lock-step with Uncharted. Early on, players are introduced to the campfire hubs, where Lara can craft better weapons with salvage she’s collected and unlock new skills with XP she’s racked up. They’re familiarised with the game’s shooter mechanics as Lara hunts deer and fends off hungry wolves. They also activate her “Hunter’s Instinct” mechanic by tapping the right bumper, illuminating useful items and objectives in her environment.
The moment that Lara steps away from the body of her first kill, however, both she and Tomb Raider change. The character takes her first step towards honing her ruthless survival instincts and the game flowers into a series of open-ended playgrounds… While embargo forbids me from going into detail about some of the collectibles, I can report that picking salvage is a high priority in the game. Shortly after Lara’s initial scramble for survival, players gain access to both a pistol and bow, both of which can be augmented to cause more damage and increase their rate of fire. Not long after that, a submachine gun is added to the mix and the list of possible augments balloons considerably. Players will need to collect as much salvage as they can to kit out Lara’s arsenal, so it’s worth solving every puzzle, smashing open every container they find and looting every enemy they fell.
Source: The Guardian
Watching the video above will give you an idea how ‘accurately’ the archery is simulated. I get the feeling we haven’t seen the last piece of entertainment this year featuring some kind of sexed-up pseudo-traditional archery suggesting rugged independence. Or the last spurious or semi-spurious use of bows as a fashion accessory.
Still, somewhere down the line it might inspire one or fifty or five hundred people to take up archery for life, and I’m all good with that.
