Fear & Loathing Mix With Beauty & Greed In the Olympic Cauldron
The Summer Olympics are here! Yay! The Olympics, especially the summer ones, have become so commercialized, politicized and oversold, on so many levels, that it is hard in some respects to get too excited about them. That said, there is still a powerful beauty and lure in the physical prowess of the athletes, the competition, the joinder of nations from around the globe, the spectacle and the always awesome pageantry of the opening and closing ceremonies. To whatever extent the games ever had “purity”, there is much less of it now; but there is still a lot of sporting, and viewing, value.
Not long from the posting of this article (well it will be two full hours for me and those on the west coast, which is totally bullshit), the opening ceremonies will commence. We Yanks in the States cannot of course, due to the fucking craven greed of NBC, see the opening ceremonies live. If that were the only unmitigated greed by NBC and the other purveyors of the Olympics.
I have always loved the opening and closing ceremonies. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen was the closing of the 1994 winter Olympics at Lillehammer, with the moving tribute to Sarajevo by lamplight in the dark. Powerful stuff. As was the simply incredible, even if long, opening ceremony in Beijing last time around. I have seen a little of the gig on a bootleg feed from London; it is good, but nowhere near the over the top opulence of Beijing and some of the others. I am anxious to hear what you all think, and let this be a forum for just that, and all other things Olympic.
There are also a few other notes to be made. America’s own Borat, Mittens Romney, brilliantly blurted out that London was not ready for the Olympic experience and that such was “disconcerting”:
Thursday was supposed to be the easy day, when Mitt Romney would audition as a world leader here by talking about his shared values with the heads of the United States’ friendliest ally.
Instead, the Republican presidential candidate insulted Britain as it welcomed the world for the Olympics by casting doubt on London’s readiness for the Games, which open Friday, saying that the preparations he had seen were “disconcerting” and that it is “hard to know just how well it will turn out.”
The comments drew a swift rebuke from Prime Minister David Cameron and, by day’s end, a public tongue-lashing by the city’s mayor as the Olympic torch arrived in Hyde Park.
“I hear there’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready,” Mayor Boris Johnson cried out to a crowd of at least 60,000. “He wants to know whether we’re ready. Are we ready? Are we ready? Yes, we are.”
Cameron, responding to the candidate with a note of irritation, said that “of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” an apparent reference to Salt Lake City. That city held the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, which Romney organized. The prime minister and the mayor are conservatives, making their scolding all the more embarrassing for the candidate, an otherwise sympathetic ideological ally.
Gots to love the Brits for giving Romney the stiff upper lip. Mittens is truly the American Borat. At best. At this point, it is fair to say they loathe Mittens. But there is not just loathing out and about in London town, there is fear too.
The fear in London is of, what else, terrorism. And it is not an unfounded fear either. England, but London particularly, is a very integrated and multi-cultural place. I found Jason Whitlock’s thoughts compelling:
There is less fear in England, and perhaps that is why I’m scared.
The threat of terrorism never leaves my mind.
The locals promise rain is inevitable here. The idyllic setting we’ve enjoyed in the days leading up to Friday night’s opening ceremony will be disturbed by the reality of London’s relentless summer drizzle, the locals swear.
The world’s tumult is relentless here, too. It is, perhaps, just as inevitable that these Olympic Games will be touched by terrorism. London is not isolated. You can fly from the Middle East to Heathrow Airport in less than five hours. London’s great strength, its diversity, makes it easy for extremists to hide in the open.
But the fear of terrorism is not just in London, is it? We in the States have just been touched by the suffocating force of that in Aurora Colorado. Where does crime end, and terrorism begin?
Weighty questions, and questions the American Borat, Mitt Romney, has not, and will never, answer. Romney is a two faced, say anything, flim flammer of the highest order. In terms of personal intellectual and moral honesty, Mitt Romney makes Barack Obama look like the proverbial George Washington by the cherry tree as told by Parson Weems.
If Mitt Romney thinks the acknowledgement and preparedness of Britain and London is “disconcerting”, what the hell does he think is going on in the United States with the false flag security theater and Congressional ignorance of the degradation of American privacy and liberty that is being fraudulently accomplished by the security state in the name of the citizenry?
If even the leaders of the Congressional Intelligence Committees don’t have a clue, what in the world does Mitt Romney think he knows? What do the rest of us know? If London, with enough cameras, microphones, and prying eyes to make the NSA jealous, is so insecure that a tough guy mope like Jason Whitlock is afraid, and has terror on his mind, where are we here in the States?
So, there you have the fear, loathing, beauty and greed. All manifesting themselves before even the start of the opening ceremonies. It is a wondrously awesome, and somewhat distasteful, thing all at once.
But, for the moment, the opening ceremonies are magnificent. Enjoy and discuss!
[American Borat, by the way, is the work product of two of this blog’s most awesome friends: Twolf as artist, and Watertiger’s “Dependable Renegade” as publisher. We love both as if they were our own]
Romney is the top candidate in the retroactive-award division of the Mid-Atlantic Fund. The prize is a free ticket, good for travel halfway across the Atlantic. What makes him the top candidate is that a lot of people on both sides of it want him to win.
As I watch this overblown, ridiculous, ill-conceived mess called an Opening Ceremony, I can only sit back and think how many children could have been fed, how many homeless could have been housed, how much good could have been done in the world with all the money wasted on this craptacular.
@Charles D: Well, perhaps you could ask the director/producer, Danny Boyle, who knows a thing or three about exploiting unpaid workers, homeless and the underclass, for wild profit. Boyle was the man behind “Slumdog Millionaire“.
Everyone thinks that was Voldemort in the dream sequence for the kids with the doctors and nurses. I’m sure it was really Rick Scott trying to head off the socialist medicine.
@bmaz: With due respect, Danny Boyle didn’t exploit the slum dwellers, he paid the usual rate. Had he filmed the movie in Canada, he would have paid our set rates.
It’s a different conversation, that the kids in Indian film industry are not paid well, but Danny Boyle is not responsible for that. If anything, he shot the movie with so much realism that it made the Indian Gov’t embarrassed enough to improve their living conditions.
@Charles D:
Agreed. What comes to mind are Bread and Circuses– a spectacular attempt to divert our attention from the real issues, hiding a decaying and corrupt ruling class.
Bob in AZ
The NBC coverage is the most sickenly pathetic crap I have ever seen in my life. What a pathetic sick load of commercially bastardized shit.
Well, one thing seems clear: The Olympic opening ceremonies must have solved the unemployment problem in London, at least temporarily.
Bob in AZ
@Bob Schacht: (bob!! great to see you in the threads. been missing ya. hope you’re doing well.)
@rosalind: @Bob Schacht:
Dudes and Dudettes:!!!!!
Okay, ima say just one little thing, them Ima let you finish:
The Brit presentation is 80% suck ass crud to start with. With the craven commercialization, bastardization and addled childish voiceover from NBC, it is all just damn near unwatchable. Literally maddening.
Good god, @NBC just fucking sucks dark shit. They should be shot and then turned into Soylent Brown for dogs to eat.
I think I’m glad I gave up on watching years ago, when the US coverage turned into All-American-All-The-(Delayed)-Time and the heck with other countries and sports that aren’t big money games in the US.
@bmaz: i swore off nbc sports after the Vancouver Winter Olympics when they STILL tape delayed EVERYTHING on the West Coast.
yep, East Coast got live. West Coast – where the fuckin’ events were taking place – tape delay.
i also have a very low tolerance for Sir Paul.
went to go see “Beasts of the Southern Wild” instead. run, do not walk, to this movie if it makes it to your burb.
@rosalind: I only hope that the closing is all Captain Fantastic and The Glimmer Twins.
@rosalind: (Thanks for the welcome back. I’ve been AWOL because Life sometimes gets in the way…)
Bob
@Bob Schacht: Well, welcome back, I have also been thinking of you. May be coming to Flag soon for a day or day/night.
The end is near.
@bmaz:
Wow, such violent rhetoric, after Aurora. You are angry! But I have discovered that if you stop watching the cable tee vee, you will be happier.
As for “shooting” NBC corporate propagandists, that would be wrong. They do deserve to be shot because they have lied and promoted wars and torture and protect a corrupt National Security State. Punish them by not watching their falsehoods.
Also, the torturers of Bradley Manning likewise, deserve an extreme punishment. And the torturers who created the wars certainly deserve a fair trial for their treasons. But I would not suggest that they be shot. But do not forget the “Collateral Murder”. The American Police State shoots people all the time, whether in Anaheim or Baghdad.
A lighter moment from the Dish:
“The United States Equestrian Federation and the United States Olympic Committee have refused to make those working with Rafalca available for interviews in the days leading up to the Games and prohibited the news media from even seeing the horse. Through a spokeswoman, Ann Romney declined to be interviewed.
Does Rafalca also have tax returns”
I came all loaded for bear this morning but others have said it well.
I had to leave at the 1/2 way point, it was so sickening. So far as watching TeeVee, just watching 1/2 the olympic opening exceeded my Tee Vee budget for the next 2 tears. I simply do not watch.
It was as if nothing but the 60’s on mattered for British music. A few seconds of “Nimrod” from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” is all the tribute I heard to British classical music, covered over with a bit of Shakespeare. Well, kill two birds wit one stone. And J.K Rowling. The “moderators” (both of whom sucked bilge water)said she was nervous. I’ll bet she was apoplectic over being part of such misery. Why did she do it?
OMG! OMG!….How embarrassing!
That’s great they didn’t show it live not that I was going to watch it, amazing
The good news is.
http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/
http://www.pitpass.com/46979-Hamilton-takes-Hungary-pole
Oh well have someone coming to look at the toy I bought myself last year, I told myself when it needed tires it was time to sell.
I liked when the lighted hospital beds spelled out NHS and the announcer said, “that spells out NHS, the National Health Service,” and no one explained what in the hell that meant – that Britain has health care and is proud of it!
@Frank33: You don’t know me for squat Frank, so please stop with your constant pernicious little comments acting like you do.
@tjallen: Yes, the highlighting of nationalized health care was a nice touch. Not that Costas and Vierra were going to give it the play it deserved.
@bmaz: I certainly do not know you. Pernicious and constant and little, hardly, compared to your campaign against Bradley Manning.
Do you only want comments that agree with you, defending Zimmerman for instance.
You used violent language against NBC, so you own that.
@Frank33: Thank you for your continued brilliant participation.
@bmaz: Gosh bmaz, I’m bummed I had to work late last night and miss such a treat — you make it sound so appealing ; )
@bmaz: Good! The weather up here is better than Phoenix this time of year. Let me know when it happens.
Bob in AZ
@phred: Phred!!! I have missed you.
@tjallen: I recall Matt Lauer saying something to that effect.
That whole part with the children was a complete turn-off. I hoped it would get better. No, it just didn’t get worse.
I suppose having more classical music highlighted is too much to expect. It is said that the Brits know only two pieces of classical music:
Pop goes the Queen and God save the Weasel.
I wish you all could have seen the unedited version, with the English commentary. Beijing was about overindulgence – techno & billion$ spent, but lacked Heart.
Like Vancouver Winter Olympics, the London opening ceremonies was about us uniting in spirit – celebrating the human spirit.
The opening performance, highlighting victims of terrorism was heart wrenching, then uplifting. I can’t wait for the closing ceremonies …
@bmaz: It’s a good week, when you’ve had only one person try to tarnish your image …
@bmaz: Miss you too, bmaz : ) Can’t say that I missed the babblefest last night though. What I wouldn’t give to be able to watch broadcasts of live events without tedious chattering commentary.
@phred: The opening tribute to victims of terrorism must be on youtube, with the English commentary …
@Petrocelli: Thanks Petro! I’m hoping to see if one can stream the whole thing (as long as it is NOT the NBC version).
I used to watch as much of the Olympics coverage as I could when I was younger, but the coverage in the Costas’ era is just too painful to sit through. I’m interested in the competition, not all the “up close and personal” melodrama the network likes to invent. Oddly enough, sporting competition is actually sufficiently entertaining on its own merits. Who knew? ; )
@Petrocelli: We, of course didn’t see that homage to the victims. Bleerg.
But, YES it is here at Deadspin
@phred: The live feed I was watching off and on when writing this yesterday was very good. Wish I had just sat and watched it. Had no commentary other than the official stadium announcer.
@bmaz: That sounds delightful : ) I need to look into live streaming of the events themselves — does anyone do that?
When barely a teen, I got to stand in a college caffeteria line between some famous young athlete men at an olympic trial field and track meet.
On the field they could do things my young frame wondered if it might, someday.
In the caffeteria, as I harbored my introspective provincial outlooks and addressed the pastel tones of caffeteria fare, I noted that those athletes were permitted to go back in line for several meals. It seemed incongruous.
So noble they were. They were in their twenties, barely. Amazingly muscled. Impressive but somehow seeming to be meditating upon some distant nearly corporeal deity who controlled their event and their on-field performances.
Except one ornery man who was a stern preacher but wiry and quite athletic, thank you.
Records were set. I overnighted with family in a summer vacant dorm. I got little rest. The events made scant sense. Athlete garb was even scantier.
Two of those people evidently appeared in London to honor the new generation.
Those Greeks started something, οψης, spectacle. Now Greece can contemplate selling naming rights to offset economic currents lapping upon Peloponnesian shores.
The venture capitalists contemplate owning their very own Oracle, like an olympiad field observer opining upon the Fine character of the contestant most favored.
Still, the women in our house, especially the teens, really enjoyed highbeam in several olympics; and the…
Sport. What’s sport.
BTW, one good thing out of the babblefest: the babblers disclosed that one Olympic participant was from FLAGSTAFF! Yes he is, but oh there’s a catch. He currently LIVES in Flagstaff, but he’s actually from South Sudan (can you find that on your map?) He’s in the news because South Sudan, being a brand new country, doesn’t yet have an Olympics Committee. The Olympics wanted him to run under the Sudanese national flag, and listen to the Sudanese national anthem. Nosiree, Bob! (or words to that affect.) This would be a bit like asking an athlete from Georgia to compete under the Yankee flag one year after the Confederates lost the civil war. The Olympics Committee finally relented and is allowing him to compete as an Independent Athlete. In long distance running. And no, I don’t know how he wound up in Flagstaff. There are families here, however, who “adopted” some of the “Lost Children” of Sudan, and maybe he was one of those.
Bob in AZ
@Bob Schacht: Yeah, I was going to say, there are actually many “Lost Boys” and some girls I think, here in Phoenix, and have been for quite a while. would not be surprising that a few made their way to Flagstaff.
Did you see there are complaints in Britain that the opening ceremony was too lefty?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19029510
@tjallen: How could it be too Lefty if they had Mary Poppins defeat Lord Voldemort? Oh tell me I am wrong that they really did that, because I didn’t see it with my own eyes. That is too absurd to comprehend.
Bob in AZ
@bmaz:
Glad you liked it! Couldn’t you be a little less enthusiastic?
@chetnolian: You know, actually having gone back and seen many segments off of clean streaming feeds, I liked the content much better than I originally did. What NBC did to it, however, was simply maddening and inexcusable. And it was very hard to separate feelings for the production from that madness. In fairness, I also think it was designed by Brits, for Brits, and was probably very successful in that regard.
Was the show well received over there? The other thing that really strikes me as refreshing is how people were emphasized over the visually stimulating, but somewhat sterile synchronized and mechanized faceless productions in Beijing.
@chetnolian: Also, this is a terribly boring run at the Hungaroring.
@bmaz:
Yes it was well received, possibly helped by the BBC commentators saying little.
You are right, it was by Brits for Brits.The whole show has cost us enough! This was predictable as it was Danny Boyle doing it. He managed to get away with being remarkably leftwing, especially in the National Health Service sequence, which he is reputed to have insisted in being both there and quite long. In doing that he was achieving three things; , reminding even right wing Brits that if there is one part of a big state they almost all believe in it’s the NHS; keeping David Cameron on his toes to rein in his Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, who in many people’s eyes is trying to spoil it; and lastly I would be amazed if there was not a strong message about healthcare being sent across the Pond.
Don’t tell me more about Hungaroring. I can’t see it live as I won’t subscribe to Murdoch’s Sky and the BBC is showing highlights at 5 our time. From what you say though the programme can be quite short!
This just in from the Bronx
The 8% Factor
NEW YORK — Preliminary estimates show that Saturday night’s NBC telecast scored the highest ratings for the first evening of an Olympics competition outside of the United States.
The Nielsen company said Sunday that its measurement of the nation’s largest cities showed ratings for the Olympics telecast were up 8 percent over opening night in Beijing four years ago. A fuller measurement of viewership is expected later on Sunday.
NBC was the target of many Twitter complaints on Saturday for not telecasting the marquee men’s swimming competition live, instead showing it on tape delay in prime-time. But prime-time ratings are the report card that the company cares about the most and, thus far, viewers are responding to the strategy
My favorite event is the marathon with the leader entering the
stadium…..
@Petrocelli: Did they have anything on the victims of American terrorism like all the people who were killed in a Baghdad restaurant we bombed early in the invasion because someone thought Saddam was there? Or the numerous Afghan DOAs we’ve killed at wedding parties?
It’s a bit hypocritical to decry terrorist acts in which you are complicit.
Awesome picture from Paul Henri Cahier of Alonso on track at the Hungaroring today.
@bmaz:
Very pretty, very red, but not quite fast enough
@chetnolian: Not today, no. Still the man at Ferrari has a 40 point lead for the crown. Easily surmountable with a couple of wins by either Webber, Hamilton, Vettel or Kimi; coupled with a couple of DNFs by Alonso. In light of how reliable the top marques cars have been though, you cannot bank on DNFs. This is where the newer scoring system since 2010 really could make a difference. Under any of the older systems, the title would be all but over with unless Alonso became injured. I am resistant to change, but methinks the new scoring parameters instituted in 2010 were a positive one in this regard. More emphasis on the win, which is good.