Beijing Olympics 2008

[BigV]

My turn at the kitchen sink ...

The nine year old little girl that sang, "O China!" ("Ode to the Motherland", actually) or whatever the opening anthem was... Little girl has pipes; pipes of silver and crystal, just beautiful. Turns out, she was lip synching it. Her "beauty" lay in her smile, not in her singing talent. And the real singer got booted because her smile wasn't as pretty. A matter of "doing what's best for the nation". Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Why didn't they add her to the women's gymnastics team roster while they were at it?

Second fakery: The "Giant footprints in fireworks" Did you hear the breathless NBC coverage: "almost animation" "cinematic". Bwahahahahahahah! And I fell for it! (kicks self again! Sucka!) Turns out the NBC people *knew* it wasn't real, *knew* it was animation but hedged their commentary with that little "almost". I'm pissed at that. "Oh, we were just accepting the feed from the Chinese". "Chust followink ORDERS!" is not an acceptable defense. FFS, even Bob Costas irritated the President and then said "You're dismissed!" ( :eek ). You can't call a chinese 钗车/铲车 a spade?

And what's up with the "women's" gymnastic team from China. I use quotes because I don't consider 11 year old girls "women". wtf?

[lookout123]

i thought they all had to be at least 16 for this olympic cycle?

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by BigV

Second fakery: The "Giant footprints in fireworks" Did you hear the breathless NBC coverage: "almost animation" "cinematic". Bwahahahahahahah! And I fell for it! (kicks self again! Sucka!) Turns out the NBC people *knew* it wasn't real, *knew* it was animation but hedged their commentary with that little "almost". I'm pissed at that.

Gutted. I watched it with a room full of artists but none of our pyro-technicians were there. Mike - a theatrical engineering sculpter (for want of a better word) who has been around pyro for years did actually swear at how tight it was. I replied - from the depths of my worldly wisdom - "Well if anyone's going to get fireworks right it's the Chinese!"

I am completely gutted. That part of it blew me away. The visual idea was still good, but it's cheating. Bad Chinese. To be fooled is one thing. To be fooled about the thing that impressed me the most is another. I may never but another cheaply manufactured item again.

Mike also said that our commentators were reading from a script supplied by the hosts. I was willing to be more benevolent and suggested that they simply had production notes. Now I wonder. Gah.

[lookout123]

They aren't allowing banners in the stands at events for fear that a protest or political statement will pop up.

This is the last olympics for softball and baseball and the US team's supporters flew over in pretty good numbers but they've been repeatedly reprimanded for banners displaying player names.