Gracie Gold Gets Real with Page-Turning Autobiography "Outofshapeworthlessloser"

There's a dose of ominous foreshadowing in the table of contents to Gracie Gold's new autobiography "Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out."

Arranged in four parts, the 329-page bestseller includes chapters ranging from "Perfect Obsession" and "Four Is the Loneliest Number" to "Failed Anorexic" and a nod to another dark page-turning literary work (and soundtrack to a skating performance), "East of Eden." 

As reported by initial critical reviews for the book titled after one of Gold's self-disparaging nicknames or personas, her work includes vivid and frank details of life experiences the 28-year-old endured and from which she continues to heal. Anorexia, OCD, pill popping and alcohol abuse populate the club flush of crud and wild Jokers on the table for readers to ponder.  

Gold's mostly no-holds-barred perspectives about U.S. Figure Skating and the unglamorous (often ugly) behind-the-scenes realities of international figure skating competitions also are in full view. Her take on recent doping revelations is aptly stern. She also alleges a rape at the hands of a fellow competitor, references her bisexuality, and delves into nearly three decades of family secrets including her parents and fellow athlete twin sister. 

Impressed (or distressed) the morning after a full read, I described to friends that "Outofshapeworthlessloser" is akin to "watching a slow-motion train wreck or seemingly avoidable car crash" for the narrative's "ability to inspire both gasps and cringes amid an irresistible desire to keep watching, err, reading" with "reader remorse at an inability to take the wheel, inspiring one to holler out, as in a horror movie screening, 'Stop, girl, don't go near there!' or similar when the protagonist in danger is about to make a terrible decision."  

The book also inspired some rabbit hole searches of social media archives to view past posts, images or videos and competition footage referenced by Gold. 

While she did not specifically reference the 2014 Team USA Media Summit at which I reported on her ascent to the Sochi Olympics, Gold did describe her experiences at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships from which this blogger posted interviews. Some of her harshest on-ice self-flogging is revealed in a chapter describing the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. 

There are some light moments, too, that brought a smile or chuckle to this reader. Gold's wry sense of humor shines through some of her interactions with coaches or media. In an early chapter, while detailing work with a youth skating coach nicknamed Cruella, Gold punctuates several paragraphs of verbal abuse with this gem:

"When Cruella lashed out at me, I lashed back louder. Anger was my protection. It got back to me years later that Cruella told people she had always known I'd become a star. I call bullshit! She was doing her best to humiliate me. Or maybe she didn't like me because I stood up to her."

On a more serious note, Gold continues while aptly taking to task the notion of coaching as a bully.

"The years I spent with Cruella normalized the kind of controlling behavior that even if it produces positive results on the ice, can be ruinous to a child's personal development."

Readers may find joy through the Olympian's interactions with Taylor Swift (they baked cookies together) or descriptions of collaboration with sponsors including cosmetics brand CoverGirl. 

In the realm of funny-not funny, Gold describes some of the name-punctuated headlines published to preview Sochi 2014. 

"I remember someone tweeting out to me, 'If I hear one more Gracie Gold headline, I'm going to scream.' And I was like, 'Me too, bud.' It was enough to make me start wishing for a new name. Stacy Silver or Bonnie Bronze, anyone?"

Gold's dry wit also shines in the Chapter 23, in which "chest size and its impact on exercise is absolutely a conversation worth starting." While several notes echoed remarks of female friends who, like Gold, opted for breast reduction surgery, I found the author's self-deprecating comparisons to Charles Schulz drawings -- and her inventive use of (one-time PR client'o'mine) KT Tape -- both original and funny (back in the day, we never had Gold's method in KT press materials). 

The only letdown from "Outofshapeworthlessloser" was Gold's restraint from sharing more than a few sentences about another professional mental health diagnosis: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), buried on page 246. 

Like Gold, my attention-deficit diagnosis arrived in my mid-20s, and upon reading her disclosure I was eager to learn the treatment options or behavior modifications she chose, only to find a succinct reference that she is "on medication for it" without specifics (for moi, decidedly drug-free and it worked/works when you work it, though it's compelling to admit it took me over two weeks sidelined by countless Instagram scrolls to find focus and complete this book review post).

Juxtaposed with comparative oversharing around other wellness challenges, Gold's omission of ADHD details inspired a wave of questions, starting with the extent to which her physicians or therapists place ADHD as the deepest roots of the battery of her other mental health diagnoses. In my case, the hypochondriac on my shoulder labeled, or mislabeled, a lot of "stuff" that more recent therapists consistently trace back to ADD of youth. 

As her childhood memories fill the early pages of "Outofshapeworthlessloser," Gold describes persistent restlessness. If ice hockey was among her parents' attempted remedies for channeling her boundless energy, can Gold relate to other kids' ADD-ness enlightened by her adult experiences? Guess we'll have to find out in her mid-life or later life follow-up books after planting her ADHD "sea legs" on thick ice. 

Since interview requests for Gold went unanswered by her publicity team, I turned to another source for insights: Karen Crouse, Gold's seldom-cited "Outofshapeworthlessloser" ghost writer. 

As of this March 12 post, only two other book reviewers mentioned Crouse by name. 

Via email, Crouse affirmed my hunch that only Gold could speak more about her ADHD management and the reasons for sparsely addressing the topic. It's perhaps too recent a diagnosis or it's simply not as page-turning urgent as other mental health challenges, from my view.

Crouse also was generous in explaining how she tackled the "Outofshapeworthlessloser" project and when she started the writing on Gold's initiative.

"I signed (gladly) a contract that stated I would ghostwrite Gracie's book and that my name would not appear on the cover or title page," wrote Crouse in a Feb. 26 email response. "I had no issue with that arrangement ... it was plenty good enough for me."

Crouse continued that, "My satisfaction was wholly and richly derived from the collaborative process. I loved the work. From the time I spent talking with Gracie for a 2019 New York Times profile, I suspected that this project would be interesting and profound, with great potential to help many readers who recognize themselves in the challenges [Gold] has faced."

According to Crouse, once a proposal and contract got formalized, the collaboration hastened in early 2022 with "at least three" in person visits as well as phone conversations "at least twice a month ... recorded and that I transcribed myself so I could get a feel for Gracie's vocabulary and speech patterns." 

Rounds of drafts later, the lion's share of work concluded last July. Crouse also volunteered background on the foundation for the text.

"It was Gracie's choice to lay bare her soul in the pages," wrote Crouse. "She told me before I signed on ... that she didn't want 'another fluffy sports memoir' and that was all I needed to hear as I had no interest in hagiography.

"From the start I simply asked the necessary questions to develop and deepen the narrative," Crouse added. "[Gold] provided the compelling stories that I, in concert with our editor, crafted into a coherent - hopefully - structure." 

Gold closes the book's acknowledgements "To Matt Inman for the edits" shortly after a dedication "To Karen Crouse for going on this journey ... and helping me write a better memoir than I could have ever dreamed possible." 

For anyone who can't get enough of Gold's perspectives, Crouse also helped the skater with a thoughtful and timely Olympic figure skating commentary published in The Cut during the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. 

"Outofshapeworthlessloser" is an absorbing read that inspires questions, sheds light in dark corners of international skating, and leaves readers with optimism for Gold's future on or off the ice. No matter the degree to which readers manage ADD, they may find themselves hyper-focused on learning the Olympian's lifetime of hard work. 

As of this post, there are no publicized book signing events in the weeks ahead, but Gold may appear at November's 8th edition of "Scott Hamilton & Friends" in Nashville (where she performed in 2022 and 2023) -- details are posted at this link during summer months.  

Book cover provided by Crown Publishing with book design by Caroline Cunningham. All other images -- except of Karen Crouse's Instagram profile image -- are photos copyright Nicholas Wolaver and may not be published nor reposted without written advance permission. 

Tommie Smith's Life and Olympic Feats Get Graphic Novel Treatment in Page-Turner "Victory. Stand!"

On Oct.16, 1968, in Mexico City, three Olympians became global icons. 

In the decades since, the medals won by Team USA's Tommie Smith and John Carlos, with Australia's Peter Norman -- and their actions during the ceremony while officials hoisted the "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- were revisited and replayed countless times through film, broadcast specials, print media and, eventually, online. 

Now for the first time, Smith's life and gold medal feat have gotten a graphic novel treatment on the pages of "Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice" co-created with best-selling author Derrick Barnes and award-winning comic artist Dawud Anyabwile. 

Just days following its Sept. 27 release, the book earned a contender spot as finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for young people's literature, with other accolades via The New York Times Book Review and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Much like Smith's on-track surge to set a 200m world record, "Victory. Stand!" and its compelling messages are likely to capture gold. 

The 208-page glossy volume opens at the starting blocks of the Olympic track but quickly pivots to Smith's hardscrabble childhood with 11 siblings in rural Texas. 

Readers learn Smith's memories of stern and faithful parents, who eventually relocated the family to California as part of the Great Migration. Through the first two chapters (about 100 pages) the narrative toggles from youthful observations back to the on-track action, relating childhood milestones as context for Mexico City's play-by-play. 

At a book signing event in an activities room of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church last week, about 50 attendees listened as Anyabwile, Barnes and Smith share details of their creative process, which commenced in 2018, in step with a High Museum of Art exhibition honoring 50 years since Mexico City. 

Barnes, who previously wrote over 10 youth books including "The King of Kindergarten" and "Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut," described Smith's "excited conversations like an uncle telling a great story" at Smith's home, later inspiring Barnes to engage an illustrator selection process. 

Anyabwile was a natural No. 1 choice given his Cartoon Network and other Turner Studios accolades as well as previous artistic expertise on another Olympian-centric graphic novel in 2020, "Becoming Muhammad Ali." 

Both the illustrator and writer said they grew up with photos or posters of Smith as "a fixture without context" and the collaboration "added context to [Smith's] family life and upbringing."

During the signing portion of last week's event, I asked Anyabwile the most challenging aspect of the project to illustrate, and he turned to Chapter Two's double truck opener portraying horrors of racism from hooded KKK members with torches igniting a cross to a lynched father, an indication this book for young readers does not sugarcoat the many struggles for Blacks before, during and since the Civil Rights Movement. Should this book include a "parental guidance" suggestion, I wondered, as several pages portray adult decisions. 

But part of the point to the book, Barnes stated, is to inspire family conversations. And "Victory. Stand!" does encourage thoughtful discussion of history, racism, faith, focus and when, where and how to take a meaningful stand for what's right. 

Later study of Anyabwile's beautiful images also yielded a full-page celebration of Queta Basilio, the Team Mexico Olympic hurdler chosen as the first woman to ignite the Olympic cauldron. Other Olympians including Bob Beamon and LeBron James also enjoy Anyabwile's excellent artistry, which he explained is drawn electronically. 

For this blogger the most compelling section of "Victory. Stand!" is Chapter Three's "Metamorphosis" of Smith from small town athlete to Olympic and world record contender while studying at San Jose State University. Though I met Smith hours after his 2016 White House visit and later interviewed him at the High, later watching documentaries or reading more about his silent protest, these previous interactions did not fill in the blanks as to his becoming Tommie Smith. 

Reading "Victory. Stand!" also added context to the Olympic Project for Human Rights of which Smith was a key participant. The book draws attention to the International Olympic Committee's hardline stance against protests and comes full circle with contemporary athlete protests inspired by Smith's stand. 

Unavoidable-for-me Nick-, er, nitpicking, did yield minor errors I think occurred only by accident in the illustration process, or via honest copy editor mistakes. One page highlighting the 1968 Olympic Trials includes the jumbo screen installed at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1984 but no Olympic cauldron of 1932, the latter perhaps omitted for the scene to fit the page. 

Also, Basilio's torch and cauldron moment have no flames, and the medal stand on which Smith and Carlos raised their gloved fists is drawn with erroneous Olympic rings that are "smushed" or "crowded" horizontally linking what would be blue-black-red and/or yellow-green rows. The rings appear correctly in other two- or three-dimensional images throughout the book.

Readers will likely savor the variety of comic techniques from intricately drawn "ink" splatters to fine lines and detailed Ben Day dots. I am eager to read other works by the trio of authors. 

As the audience Q&A wrapped, I asked Smith when he thought a turning point occurred in the public's perception of his human rights salute. His response did not acknowledge a specific time nor date range, but he said that at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's recently installed leadership "women turned it" and from his vantage the IOC still has not. 

"Still battling. A continual battle," Smith said. 

Image credits: Book cover via W.W. Norton & Co. Other images by Dawud Anyabwile inside "Victory. Stand!" Book event photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the group photo below snapped, with Wolaver's thanks, by Delois Jordan Smith.

Murray Olderman and The Draw of Sport

From a recent request for a review copy (thanks, Fantagraphics P.R.), I recently perused the new hardback book "The Draw of Sport" by Murray Olderman.

On its pages readers find nearly 120 illustrations Olderman created in the author's decades-spanning sports journalism career that started when the student newspaper at his undergrad alma matter Mizzou published one of his cartoons.

He went on to draw thousands of works of art inspired by countless experiences in the sports box on assignment from newspapers and the wire service for which he eventually managed sports coverage.

Readers learn Olderman's aspirations to write and illustrate sports began during his youth when his father brought home newspapers filled with sports cartoons in the days before photography and technology came to dominate athletic coverage.

I was intrigued by "The Draw of Sports" since it seemed if Olderman wrote and created images from the 1940s to recent years, he probably met an Olympian or two with some stories to share.

Jesse Owens appears in the cover art for this new book, and in the text describing the Owens portrait that Olderman sketched for a Games-centric magazine spread, readers learn Olderman perhaps also drew Olympians Jim Thorpe, Paavo Nurmi, Charley Paddock, Harrison Dillard and Bob Mathias on a special assignment tied to the 1952 Games.

The format for "The Draw of Sport" is consistent: Even pages feature a few paragraphs the author scribed from his memories of athlete encounters and interviews, with a matching cartoon on the facing odd page. Owens appears in the middle of Olderman's A to Z list book-ended by Atlanta Braves home run king Hank Aaron and 1932 Olympian Babe Zaharias.

"[In 1954] I actually met Jesse Owens at a luncheon at Toots Shor's on 52nd Street in Manhattan, the favorite sports hangout in the city," wrote Olderman on his Owens descriptor. "[He] was doing motivational speaking by then after varied ways trying to capitalize on his Olympic glory. I don't remember what company he was plugging, but do recall the staccato cadence of his speech."

Olderman described similar "I was in the room with ..." or "when I spoke to ..." Olympian encounters that pop up a few times in "The Draw of Sport" on narrative/illustration pairs for Muhammad Ali, Jean-Claude Killy, Jim Thorpe and Zaharias.

Olympic basketball's Ann Meyer (1976 -- appearing in a spread featuring her pro baseball husband Don Drysdale), Bill Russell (1956 in Melbourne) as well as 1960 team alternate John Havlicek also made the cut.

The Games appear in a handful of other narratives, but mostly to provide context on Olderman's reporting assignments rather than specific Olympians.

Kareem Abdul-Jabar, for instance, appears in "The Draw of Sport" for his basketball feats, but Olderman's illustration of the black boycott of the 1968 Games -- in which Abdul-Jabar participated before his NBA career -- did not show up on first glance (I found the rings illustration at left on MurrayOlderman.com and, later, on one of the section dividers in the new book).

Piecing together notes from the introduction and a few cartoon descriptions, it seems Olderman perhaps only touched the Games remotely in 1952, 1956 and 1960 but later traveled to the Olympics in 1968, which he described with some detail.

"Let's just say I had an edge on my American colleagues covering the Winter Games at Grenoble, where my focus was on Alpine events and a dashing young Frenchman who was swooping to a covey of gold medals," wrote Olderman of Killy. "[His] English was nil then [and] the interviews were conducted only in French.

"I was fairly fluent and could follow his explanations of navigating through the fog that embraced the slalom and downhill runs ... and passed them along to Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times, the only other scribe who bothered to come out to the Olympic site."

While Olderman's work and collection are impressive, I was slightly let down that so few five-ringed athletes -- an only two female Olympians -- are in "The Draw of Sport."

With only a handful of Team USA athletes celebrated (and only one French gold medal skier), I was left wondering how Olderman reported on, say, Bruce Jenner in Montreal, or Olga Korbut and Nadia Comenici's gymnastic feats, or any of the legendary performances in Los Angeles 1984 (the only post-1960s Olympiad mentioned by Olderman was a vague reference to seeing Michael Jordan play for The Dream Team in 1992).

But then, by the 1970s fewer newspapers illustrated their sports coverage with hand-drawn art, perhaps explaining, if only indirectly, the absence of these later Olympic heroes.

In his editorial role, Olderman founded the Jim Thorpe Trophy presentation to top professional football players, paying homage to the 1912 Olympian who later excelled in multiple pro sports. The book's Thorpe tribute correctly references part of Thorpe's gold medal feats only to incorrectly state his "medal" (singular) was stripped (Thorpe won then lost then received again posthumously gold medals -- plural -- in decathlon and pentathlon).

But this is a forgivable error for a sports cartoon legend who was approaching his 95th birthday as "The Draw of Sport" was going to press.

I encourage sports fans old and young to get a dose of history through reading this Olderman collection. The cartoons provide a broad roundup of sports feats from the 20th century, and the author's stories bring them to life. A video from his grad school alma matter follows this post for more background on this sports writer and artist.

Images via Fantagraphics and MurrayOlderman.com

On Miracles And Memories

During Thanksgiving I quickly read the new Al Michaels autobiography "You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television" penned with L. John Wertheim (noted Sports Illustrated and Olympic tennis reporter).

For the Olympic or sports enthusiast, it's a fun read!

Though I was familiar with the back story for Michaels' famous 1980 Olympic ice hockey play-by-play and miraculous game-closing commentary that punctuated the event (I vaguely recall age six memories of the first time it aired on ABC in tape delay), when the review copy arrived from William Morrow, it was a no-brainer to skip to Chapter 9 and read the first-hand account of the author's experience during and since that fateful day for Team USA.

Even for those without a visit to Lake Placid, N.Y., under their belt, Michaels' descriptions of the Winter Olympic scene paint a vivid picture of how intimate the venue was when the pucks were in action (the rink is inside a small field house unlike any modern ice arena, much like a "Hoosiers" small town field of play).

In addition to his Miracle On Ice memories, Michaels shared many other five-ringed influences and experiences on the pages of "You Can't Make This Up," notably:

• As a youthful fan of most sports, Michaels recalls "immersing myself in the stories" in a 300-page 1950s era Olympic history book his grandparents gave him at age nine or 10.
• The same book came in handy when Michaels accepted his first Olympic broadcasting assignment for NBC's coverage of the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics in Japan, where he got his first hockey broadcast assignment for the gold medal U.S.S.R. vs. Czechoslovakia game.
• Michaels' first trip to Los Angeles Coliseum was in 1958 (for an L.A. Rams game) when his family relocated from Brooklyn. He later provided ABC's track and field commentary in this Olympic stadium in 1984.
• When asked to name the greatest athlete of all time, Michaels chooses Jim Thorpe. "Here was a man with so much talent and skill that he played professional football and baseball, and won Olympic medals. How differently would we think about Jim Thorpe today if his whole career had been played out on television?"
• Notes on work with dozens of professionals who also became Olympic or other sports broadcasting legends, including Roone Arledge, Howard Cosell, Jim McKay and Bob Costas.
  
• Cosell's disdain for ABC colleagues and decisions made during the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis (after being passed over for the hard news assignment involving Israeli athletes). Michaels also tells is like is was when Cosell became "the world's biggest pain in the ass" just before the Los Angeles Olympics, where Cosell feigned reluctance to provide boxing commentary.
• Perspectives on Arledge, including a chapter on the evolution of storytelling as involved with Olympic coverage. This section also features some surprising details about behind-the-scenes snafus during live Olympic reports in Los Angeles, some with O.J. Simpson and Wilma Rudolph. Great POV related to Joan Benoit, Michael Gross, Maricica Puica, Carl Lewis and many other 1984 Olympic champions.
• Brief notes on covering other Winter Olympic victories including Scott Hamilton, Katarina Witt, Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean in Sarajevo. At a special event in Calgary, Michaels explained some tricks of the trade to Warren Buffett.
• Thoughts on appreciation juxtaposed with disappointment when he learned -- during a drive past Atlanta's under-construction Olympic stadium -- the 1996 Olympic and 1995 World Series broadcast assignments he would not experience.
• Great recent Games notes on Michaels' work in Vancouver, London and Sochi for NBC Olympics reporting, where a 30+ year question about Lake Placid finally got answered.

Whether detailing items with Olympic ties, or describing his tenures working in Arizona, Hawaii, Cincinnati, San Francisco or elsewhere, Michaels effectively leverages humor throughout the book. I laughed hardest at his advice for a colleague reprimanded and nervous about an on-air apology for swearing during a live broadcast.

Lessons on the value of hard work and lasting professional relationships, instilled by his family and mentors, are another key takeaway from this quick read.

I recommend "You Can't Make This Up" and look forward to seeing more of Michaels on future Games broadcasts, now informed by more of his personal storytelling.

Images via William Morrow and Sports Illustrated/CNN

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Shows Photography Exhibition "The Olympic City"

 

 

Not long ago -- before the awful Oklahoma tornado news, a 40th birthday vacation in New Mexico, and a week of work at Cedar Point theme park in Sandusky, Ohio (all experiences about which I will eventually write) -- an online calendar listing caught my eye in April.

The brief mentioned the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center just opened a photography exhibition titled "The Olympic City" featuring numerous works compiled by a pair of photographers who visited several five-ringed host cities. The exhibition continues through June 15.

Though I regret the travel-related delays to craft this post (it's been a few weeks since a rainy afternoon visit to the exhibition), it's been good to reflect on the show in anticipation of a panel discussion set for March 23 (Thursday night -- tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.) and an upcoming Atlanta Olympic field trip also planned by the museum on June 8.

"The Olympic City" features several dozen images created by photographer Jon Pack and filmmaker Gary Hustwit, who since 2008 trekked the globe to explore past Olympic host cities and evidence of impact and legacy from the big event. Details of their journey are chronicled via The Olympic Project.

Not every Olympic host city is represented, but the exhibition includes a healthy mix of recent and older, summer and winter, historic and less iconic Olympic developments. Most Olympiads from Rome 1960 to London 2012 are covered, with Munich as the only gaping hole in Hustwit's and Pack's travels.

I pondered the exclusion of Munich and the extent to which this may be intentional since the 1972 Games, in many ways, defies one component of the exhibition, presented to serve as a "possible guide to the dos and don’ts of contemporary built environments." If not overshadowed by the events of Sept. 5, Munich's Games would stand today as a marvel of Olympic legacies done right.

"The Olympic City" exhibition skews on the "don'ts" in many ways. Why include Berlin 1936 without the Bavarian Olympic counterpart of 1972? If you want to make an anti-Games point, leaving out Munich is one way to punctuate the point.

Seoul's 1988 successes also are excluded; but then, maybe Korea remains on the photographers' "to do" lists, not yet earning enough votes from those tallied by project donors.

Most of the exhibition photographs provide a beautiful and thoughtful snapshot on the many ways time buffs away the shimmer of the Olympic glory days. Images of Barcelona's amazing 1992 architecture and Mediterranean-nestled venues stand out. A look at inner-city Los Angeles and remnants of 1932 and 1984 influences are interesting and shed new light on lesser-known legacy projects (In 2003, I think I bought ice cream from the same vendor photographed at the L.A. Coliseum).

A peek at small town Lake Placid, N.Y., brought back memories of my own visit to the Olympic Village in the Adirondacks and the conversion of housing to modern prison. And a look at the harsh realities of war torn Sarajevo allude to the dark tale of the region's post-Games horrors. Well done.

So it confused me that when their project visited Mexico City, Pack and Hustwit missed some spectacular and positive impacts of the Games. Where was their photo of Diego Rivera's murals created for the Olympic venues? Not here, perhaps overlooked on the hunt for homeless inhabitants of a city long-since changed by the Olympic impact, or missed while exploring the crapped out Olympic Village cinema?

In London, why show the trash-strewn backside of an Underground station when across town there are new world class buildings by renowned best-of-our era architects (like in Barcelona)? I liked the Banksy-style anti-Games spray paint commentary (and concur, not everyone likes the Olympics). But there was a lot of graffiti photographed in this exhibition, across many Olympic cities, where more attention could have gone to non-negatives and non-alleyways. I had the feeling both photographers got locked on a mission to find the filth.

There are exceptions. On the luxury side, I liked the Helsinki image of an historic waterfront hotel opened in 1952. Images of the people in or around the once-Games gathering places are more personal and thought provoking -- what was the personal legacy for these individuals, I wondered. The bandage-clad Montreal Olympic Stadium also stood out for this visitor.

But the exhibition kept bringing me back to observations of other art museum photography noted earlier this year. Why go for decrepitude when there is more positive "out there" to be captured by the lens?

One other Olympic city stood out for its exclusion from the current exhibition stop: Atlanta and the 1996 Games. I'd like to think that the museum's planned June 8 "opinionated tour" will be fair and balanced, including Atlanta's "good" Olympic legacy elements (Centennial Olympic Park, 7,000+ college dorm rooms, Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Turner Field, Atlanta History Center archives and expansion) and forgotten legacies (tennis center, AUC venues), but have a sinking feeling the tour may be a Fox News version of "fair" and "balanced" skewed on the negative side. Thursday night's panel discussion should be interesting to experience.

Other critics and reporters offered their POV on the exhibition when it stopped in Atlanta and  recent markets. The book version of the exhibition is coming soon, too.

Should anyone go see "The Olympic City" exhibition? Yes, absolutely! Just soak it in with a grain of salt, looking beyond the grime to the brighter side of the cities once lit by the Olympic flame.

Photos of exhibition by Nicholas Wolaver include works copyrighted by Jon Pack and Gary Hustwit -- view their gallery here. The Montreal stadium image at the top of this post is from the exhibition and its website OlympicCityProject.com