Let the Games withdrawal begin

With the Beijing Olympics coming to an end, where can you go to get a dose of drama, excitement, and pageantry? Here are our suggestions for keeping the spirit alive after the torch goes out.

Watching people run long distances, I find, has a chastening effect, and makes me feel I should at least get up out of my seat. If you feel similarly, don't overreact. Begin, instead, by reading the new memoir by Haruki Murakami, called "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running." Murakami is not only Japan's preeminent writer of fiction, he is a dedicated long-distance runner. This book relates his years in training, and gives detailed accounts of several marathons, ultra-marathons, and triathlons in which he has competed. Along the way, Murakami, in his typically modest and unpretentious fashion, relates his life as a runner to his life as a writer, celebrating solitude, independence, and perseverance. It's a pep talk, but an amusing and strangely relaxing one.

SEBASTIAN SMEE

For two weeks, NBC has been presenting its up-close-and-cheerleading view of contemporary China. Hollywood's 1930s version was comparably unrealistic, if nowhere near as cheery, and far more entertaining. Consider a triple feature of "The Bitter Tea of General Yen," "The General Died at Dawn," and "Shanghai Express." Barbara Stanwyck, in "Yen," is a missionary's fiancee alarmed to find herself going native, in a big way, in the romance department. Gary Cooper can barely keep a straight face confronted with Akim Tamiroff as film history's least plausible warlord, in "Dawn." In "Express," Marlene Dietrich (above) puts enough insinuation into the question "Don't you find respectable people terribly dull?" to bring a blush to the cheeks of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

MARK FEENEY

If you've been addicted to events in the Beijing Water Cube, you've probably found it hard to get back to terra firma. As a transition, you might consider a visit to the New England Aquarium, where several of the more than 700 species of aquatic animals have Michael Phelps-like abilities. The harbor seals do effortless flip turns. The barracuda are lean and muscular. The sea turtles extend their enormous front flippers in front of their bodies in a powerful breaststroke motion. And the fur seals have prominent ears that stick out from the sides of their heads just like . . . guess who?

LINDA MATCHAN

The Olympics are about breathtaking achievement, but for TV viewers they're also about the adrenaline-firing music. To that end, try listening again to the theme from the historical biopic "Chariots of Fire," by Vangelis. That drumming, echoing, mechanical melody is still as hard to get out of your head as the Olympics theme. On YouTube you can watch Vangelis play the tune on a piano while scenes from the movie, about British runners vying for Olympic glory in 1924, roll behind him. And you'll feel more fit (and Olympic-ready) than the composer, who takes huge drags on a cigarette throughout, sending up swirling clouds with each puff.

JAMES CONCANNON

Olympics withdrawal? Sounds like yet another opportunity for me to give a shout-out to "In Treatment," one of HBO's least watched but most admirable dramas. Yup, I'm shameless. But there is a connection. The richest story line in this series about people undergoing psychotherapy belongs to a teenaged gymnast named Sophie, whose lifelong dream of qualifying for the Games crashes after a bike accident. Did Sophie sabotage her own chances for glory? The "In Treatment" therapist, played by Gabriel Byrne, peels back Sophie's bruised psyche, revealing the fierce pressures - both internal and external - on world-class athletes. And as the gymnast desperately seeking emotional balance, Mia Wasikowska (inset) delivers the TV performance of the year.

MATTHEW GILBERT

If you've had enough of those relentlessly festive trumpet fanfares, here's a sound alternative. John Adams's opera "Nixon in China" tells the story of another international spectacle, the 1972 visit of President Richard Nixon to Beijing. Premiered in 1987 by the Houston Grand Opera, the work is considered one of the most important minimalist compositions of the 20th century. A used copy of a Nonesuch three-disc CD set goes for under $20 online; a new set retails for about $34. For just $5, the website www.operapassion.com promises a DVD of that original Texas production, including documentary intro by Walter Cronkite and others.

THOMASINE BERG

Over the years, "Saturday Night Live" has produced some memorable Olympics spoofs. There was Harry Shearer and Martin Short as synchronized swimmers in 1984. And on www.hulu.com you can find an "SNL" twisted tribute to baby-faced gymnast Kerri Strug, famed for hurting her ankle in the 1996 Games but sticking the vault anyway. Here, Strug appears alongside Chris Kattan, who plays her chipper brother, Kippy. It's a high-pitched little symphony, and Strug deserves a new medal for being a good sport.

JOANNA WEISS

While your curiosity is angled eastward, take a musical tour of the Pacific Rim via the Del Sol String Quartet's ear-opening new album "Ring of Fire." There are still plenty of awkward East-West fusions out there, but you won't find them in this bracing sampler, performed with sensitivity and flair by the San Francisco-based foursome. Of particular interest is Zhou Long's elegantly tradition-spanning "Song of the Ch'in." It gives you a taste of what this Chinese émigré composer can do, long before his first opera lands on a local stage in 2010.

JEREMY EICHLER

You're not ready to quit, are you? You want more opening ceremonies, competitions, anxiety, podiums, and medals. The Special Olympics Massachusetts Fall Tournaments, where you can root or volunteer, are not that far away. From September to November, more than 1,400 Massachusetts athletes, ages 8 and older, will go for the gold, silver, and bronze in equestrian events, soccer, and other sports. The best part - no commercials. The best best part - even the qualifiers receive medals. Check the website for schedule, venues, and volunteer information. 978-774-1501. www.specialolympicsma.org

JUNE WULFF

'Contestants have been training year-round inside loft buildings and dive bars all over New York City." It's the Hipster Olympics, natch, and it's immortalized on a 9-minute video you can find on YouTube and other viral sites. Events include the MySpace Photo Session and the Music Collection Bragathon, where jaded fans comb their stacks for bands they discovered but have since sold out. (Out they go, discus-style.) Don't expect a fiercely fought battle, however. As the bombastic announcer points out, "No self-respecting hipster would ever enter this contest, let alone admit to being a hipster in the first place, so we're forced to assume that our contestants' participation is strictly ironic."

SCOTT HELLER

Some of us were on the edges of our seats last Saturday when American Erinn Smart won the Olympic silver medal in women's fencing. Fencing is a terrific event, intense and full of tradition, and can really get your blood surging. Speaking of blood, one way to let yourself down easy would be to rent the 1935 Warner Bros. classic "Captain Blood," starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the movie features one of the most skin-tingling swordfights in Hollywood history, as Blood battles it out on a beach with the evil pirate Levasseur (Basil Rathbone). What I couldn't figure out is how Blood, an Irish surgeon turned swashbuckler, learned to be so handy with a cutlass. Maybe he had used it to remove appendices.

DAVID MEHEGAN

In "District B13," Pierre Morel's wild action-thriller from 2004, you get sprinting, gymnastics, diving, and the spirit of protest (tamped down as it was) all in one package. In futuristic France, government officials want to obliterate the residents of the besieged housing project that gives the movie its title. The government has a bomb. The people have parkour. In that nimble street sport, men fly though transom windows and bound off rooftops. It looks impossible, and it probably is. But if the scathing political critique doesn't leave you breathless, the breakneck velocity and acrobatic assault will. Any halfway decent sequel will try to get Usain Bolt, Nastia Liukin, or Yang Wei in on the act.

WESLEY MORRIS

Critics have called it too abstract, if not downright ugly. Decide for yourself by checking out the stacked numerals that make up the logo for the London Games at www.london2012.com. While you're there you can see a photo of schoolchildren with bad haircuts sorting through "archeological" findings from the Olympic park, and read blog entries with such headlines as "Preparing for a great show in a truly special venue." Well before the athletes have left Beijing, the British publicity machine for the next summer Olympiad is up and (kind of) running.

GEOFF EDGERS