Another reason to question this Olympics

mickeyd

mickeyd

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I did not take time to view the opening ceremony of the Olympics but this kind of micromanagement from government officials in China...does not surprise me at all.

At the last moment a member of the Chinese politburo who was watching a rehearsal pronounced that the winner, a girl called Yang Peiyi, might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth.
Click to expand...

Pretty shallow stuff.

Mr Chen's interview gave an extraordinary insight into the control exercised over the ceremony by the Games' political overseers, all to ensure the country was seen at its best.
Officials have already admitted that the pictures of giant firework footprints which marched across Beijing towards the stadium on Friday night were prerecorded, digitally enhanced and inserted into footage beamed across the world.
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Why cheat on the fireworks display?

Beijing Olympics: Faking scandal over girl who 'sang' in opening ceremony - Telegraph
 
You'd cheat on the fireworks display if it likely risked looking washed out by the smog.
 
And with the speed world records are being shattered, I suspect Chinese authorities have planted giant magnets near Beijing that affected all the stop watches to make this the greatest Olympics ever.

J/K, but seriously, I don't feel that I can trust anything I see with my own eyes with this Games.
 
Come on, we wouldn't have an unattractive person appear either. We would just have convinced ourselves she wasn't good enough.
 
Politics, intrigue, cheating, lying, monied interests, PR ploys... I'm shocked!

But there are some [-]hot beach volleyball babes in skimpy outfits[/-] phenomenal athletes at these Games...
 
erm... what Olympics hosting country does not want to be seen at its best? No matter which city hosts, the governing body usually puts up a lot of money. So if they're footing the bill I think they have the right to pick who they want to sing in their ceremonies. It's their party, so they can get rid of buck teeth and enhance fireworks if they want.
 
a tv talking head explained the fireworks were faked only directly over the stadium so that helicopter crew filming the event would not be endangered.

as to teeth on stage, after all, it's the beijing olympics, not windsor. come to think of it, there's only one famous buck-toothed crooner i can even recall...

YouTube - What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957)
 
On Italian TV it seems basically unheard of for anyone to NOT lip-synch (usually it's their own voice, though, even if heavily processed). Whether for reasons of censorship or just fear of "la brutta figura" (making a bad impression) live musical acts just don't seem to be televised outside of one or two hallowed orchestral appointments.

Performing straight up on 'live' TV as bands and singers do on SNL or Letterman/Leno is just not an option here for whatever reason.
 
Yeah, we didn't land on the moon and Michael Phelps is "faking" winning those 3 golds..........:)
 
I guess if you want to find fault with China and the Olympics it's not that hard to do.

It's also not hard at all to find lots of things they are doing right with the games. Note for example the polite applause for Japan in the opening ceremonies. And how about the dozen or so volunteers combing the beach sand for a lost wedding ring by one of our atheletes?

I just saw one of NBC's talking heads yapping about the girl singer thing. "And what's really wrong is, the girl who got bumped says she is honored to get to sing!" Great, let's make sure we tell people when they should be offended, because you don't want to let a littel girl feel good.
 
Martha said:
Come on, we wouldn't have an unattractive person appear either. We would just have convinced ourselves she wasn't good enough.
Click to expand...

So true. (fade in Joni Mitchell's "When I was 17")


If the Chinese are to be faulted in this an other similar issues it is because they just aren't as slick as the USA mangers are.

Communist propaganda (marketing) campaigns have always been rather rough and heavy handed.
 
Janis Ian?

Or did the Chinese make Joni lip-sync to Janis? - ;) -ERD50
 
errr.. dex.. wasn't that Janis Ian? "At Seventeen"?

YouTube - Janis Ian - At Seventeen


Janis is the dark frizzy-haired lesbian (/bi.. anyway she was married once to a guy and is now married to a lady).. Joni is the long-haired blonde.

a more recent version:
she sounds practically the same.. go Janis!


---geez .. getting way OT but this is a riot.. I love Shirley Bassey in the James Bond context, but this is too much.. eye-rolling and all:
poor non-glam Janis gets 2 seconds of consideration, tho'.. rather ironic, considering. Look at her expression.

quite a difference here.. the two different cultural faces of that era.

---
Bonus cultural disconnect:
Lawrence Welk people singing about "one toke over the line":

rationale: the song mentions "sweet Jesus" and "sweet Mary".. hence it must be a wholesome new classic!
oops hadn't seen that: Lawrence at the end calls it a "modern spiritual"!
 
Interesting, MickeyD, I'm pretty much boycotting that current sporting event, but it is inescapable, no way to not to have heard of Phelps. I saw part of the the opening extravaganza and also came to a similar cynical viewpoint; and I do believe the Chinese well deserve my cynicism.

SO wanted to watch the opening ceremony which I thought was excruciatingly boring (on an immense scale, dull to the nth degree), and I fell asleep. Woke up three or four hours later in time to see the little hall monitor steal the show. Couldn't help commenting that the well placed scar from the earthquake is the cute type to give the tyke character instead of invoking pity. He is a well chosen mascot and he carried it off beautifully, like a trooper, so cute when he fought the urge to fall asleep.

B.T. Barnum would be proud! Showmanship, spin, "there's one born every minute." Best line: "I'm a class leader, a hall monitor...."
 
mickeyd said:
I did not take time to view the opening ceremony of the Olympics but this kind of micromanagement from government officials in China...does not surprise me at all.
Pretty shallow stuff.
Click to expand...
You're right, in Amurrica we would've sent her to a high-speed orthodontist. While she was there she would've had her teeth capped & whitened, too. Maybe some LASIK so that she could see the teleprompter lyrics a little better.

Heck, while she was in the chair they would've given her a face peel, liposuction, extreme-hair makeover, and other cosmetic "enhancements" as well.

If China was really micromanaging the games then they would've had their singers sequestered at age three, raised by Debbie Allen & Simon Cowell (with hair & makeup by the entire Paula-Abdul 24/7 support platoon) and carefully raised to be able to kick the butts of anything you currently see on American Idol.

I think it's both kinda funny and a great testament to government bureaucracy that the most important thing this Politburo member could find to do with his time was to determine at what point orthodontia begins to degrade from performance. Maybe the other Politburo members nominated him to this critical task so that they could get some real work done... kinda like having a company's CEO "help" the marketing team.
 
ladelfina said:
errr.. dex.. wasn't that Janis Ian? "At Seventeen"?

YouTube - Janis Ian - At Seventeen


Janis is the dark frizzy-haired lesbian (/bi.. anyway she was married once to a guy and is now married to a lady).. Joni is the long-haired blonde.

a more recent version:
YouTube - Janis Ian-Seventeen
she sounds practically the same.. go Janis!


---geez .. getting way OT but this is a riot.. I love Shirley Bassey in the James Bond context, but this is too much.. eye-rolling and all:
YouTube - Shirley Bassey - JESSE
poor non-glam Janis gets 2 seconds of consideration, tho'.. rather ironic, considering. Look at her expression.

YouTube - Janis Ian "Jesse"
quite a difference here.. the two different cultural faces of that era.

---
Bonus cultural disconnect:
Lawrence Welk people singing about "one toke over the line":
YouTube - "Toking" with Lawrence Welk

rationale: the song mentions "sweet Jesus" and "sweet Mary".. hence it must be a wholesome new classic!
oops hadn't seen that: Lawrence at the end calls it a "modern spiritual"!
Click to expand...

Wow - what a flashback. Fantastic post, Ladelfina. :cool:

Gail and Dale from Lawrence Welk are absolutely priceless - no clue at all they are singing about drugs.

Janis Ian - wasn't too hard to figure out what she was thinking. Must be hard, though. she wrote a great song and performed it better than anyone else, yet still had to sit by and play it on the piano while someone else sang it for the public applause (and profit). Life ain't always fair...
 
Is it just me ... or do the Chinese gymnast look about 9 yo.

Thought the age requirement was 16.
 
two or three have been listed on Chinese sites with a DOB that would make them 14, or were until the last year or two.

The IOC has not investigated.

ta,
mews

Hi, ReWahoo - We must have been typing at the same time - You got one of the links I was thinking of ...
 
Very funny, Tyran.

I can see Jay Leno doing an updated "Who's on first" :D

Ta,
mews
 
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