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<DIV>Thank you, Jaime. Excellent.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Blessings,</DIV>
<DIV>Jann McGuire</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 8/13/2012 4:22:43 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
svesjaime@aol.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial><FONT
color=black size=4 face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><FONT size=4>The
following are both in the Saipan Tribune. London Olympics hacked in
haste to beat deadline. Sharing it with the listserv. (I thank
George H. for the JWM quote in the second article.) </FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>If curious, you are welcome; not, see you at the
bend.</FONT><BR><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 18px">j'aime la vie</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica, arial; COLOR: black"><BR>
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_1_4f44f7e3-ce14-4b3f-a5d0-6431437f6989><FONT color=black
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica, arial; COLOR: black">
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_1_4a853f64-78a0-4913-b97f-4298d732df10><FONT color=black
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica, arial; COLOR: black">
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_1_734ae214-fe97-4946-880d-2d8837ded90d><FONT color=black
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4><B>Memorable Music
and Metaphors of Madness at Marshgate</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>The evening was
billed as a <I>Symphony of British Music, </I>bringing together the best
musical stars of the last 50 years, characterizing the tenor of the closing
ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The Olympic stadium is
on Marshgate Lane in Stratford, London, and madness was a theme early on in
the varied performances. We could not resist the alliteration in the
title.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Britain of Winston
Churchill, complete with a speechifying PM, along with images of tabloid
journalism, the Cardiff cliffs, street sweepers, the London Eye of the famed
Millennium Park Ferris wheel, and cars, cars, cars, set the tone for the
evening, beginning at mid-evening summertime in London. Simulcast in the
web but delayed on CCTV by a couple of hours for the morning audience, we
missed much with the anchor's Zhongwen bantering and the sporadic English
subtitles, especially of the performers. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>The Empire that
first employed oil to power its naval fleet, and became preeminent world power
in the 19th century, was authentic in displaying what the world have wanted
from its factory lines ever since. Who hasn't drooled over the majesty
of the Rolls Royce, the chic leopardine sleekness of the Austin Martin, and
the durability of the workhorse Land Rover?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Yup, the oil
guzzlers were up on stage without apology. Very elegantly and arrogantly
British!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Impressive was the
parade of the international colors, followed by the march of medalists, and
joined by the assembly of athletes to the side of the mid-field ramps that
served as routes to the stage, and later, the Olympic flames, seen from above
to be shaped like the Union Jack. Fitting for the occasion was the medal
award ceremony for the marathon, with first finisher from Uganda, the sole
medalist from the land of the much-maligned Idi Amin.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Recognition of the
without-which-there-would-not-be-a-smooth-Olympics, the Volunteers, was
poignant to us as we remember our Olympic hosting adviser from Sydney of Pinoy
descent and pediatric training, who made the trip to London earlier to share
her wisdom, undertaking such challenges while living with the scourge of
cancer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Volunteers were much
heralded in the running of the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo that
their tribe henceforth shall be a mainstay in every international sport
gathering.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Employed on stage
were former British Empire Commonwealths such as Indian drums and colorful
Sikhs, along with memorable performances of the band Queen, joined by Jessie J
in the vocals for <I>We will, we will Rock You! </I>A noticeable style
of singing in the field started with monotone chanting, reaching a screeching
height of screaming. I suppose, we are showing our age re electric metal
rock!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><I><FONT
size=4></FONT></I> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Comedian Eric Idle
of the Monty Python fame tore the stadium down when he emerged from the bowels
of the earth after a feigned failed cannonball shot into the rafters, pranced,
and sang on stage ("always look at the bright side of life") with the Spice
Girls, nuns and the dancing Sihks, et al.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><I><FONT
size=4></FONT></I> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 15pt; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
size=4>The Who took a big chunk of the blood pudding, with hit songs like
"Baba O'Riley," "My Generation", and their signature song from their musical
<I>Tommy, </I>"See me, feel me/Listening to you." Earlier, Kaiser Chiefs
rendered their classic "Pinball Wizard". <SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: rgb(38,38,38)"></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>The night
extravaganza went beyond its three hour schedule, but we stood when the Greek
colors went up with the anthem to honor the Games' country of origin, and to
remember how the euro that affects as all is critical in the economy of that
land.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>The singing of the
Olympic anthem is lofty and dignified if one is a church-going person, but
perhaps, for the seculars of our likeness, it is time to jazz it
up.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Passing of the
Olympic interlocking Penta Rings from London back to IOC President and on to
the Mayor of Rio de Janiero stood us up for the perky national anthem of
Brazil. Aerial view of the stadium with the Union Jack in the middle
surrounded by lit Brazilian colors in circles was phenomenol visual
assault. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>A street
sweeper-attired performer (looks like one of the athletes but I could not
decipher the Zhongwen commentary) left on stage with an English security
officer trying to point out that the performances was over, was a foil to get
the next site Rio in Brazil, its Carnival dancers, a float, lively EuroAfrican
beats and samba steps, Amazon motiffs, native costumes, and Pele!, on
stage.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>London Olympics
coordinator Stephen Coe said in his farewell address: "we lit up the flame,
and we light up the world." He added, "we saw what tenacity, ambition,
and imagination can do." Wondered what that would do were we to refocus
efforts on such daily human issues as poverty and war. Haunting in this
regard were the children's voices that sang John Lennon song <I>Imagine
</I>during the ceremony, followed by a projected image of the Beatle member
himself singing his song in a somber moment.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Snuffing of the
Olympic flame surrounded by a lit up stadium, and a last burst of fireworks,
the fires were passed on to the emerging Brazilian bird in the
background.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>"In our time Britain
got it right", said Coe. British version of madness is usually
mayhem. This one went just fine. "You and me, we can light up the
sky," went an ending song. And in a characteristic British fashion, "We
can rule the world!" Nah.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>Jacques Rogge, IOC
President, bid his grateful adieu. The Who's "See me, feel me, touch me"
from <I>Tommy </I>anticipated Copacobana of Rio. So<SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: rgb(38,38,38)">, </SPAN>all right, Rio,
top this one. Here we come, Copa! Got your thongs ready?<SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "></SPAN></FONT></DIV><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"
size=4><BR></FONT>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; COLOR: black; CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 18px"><A
style="FONT: lighter 10px Verdana, Arial; COLOR: #000000"><IMG border=0
align=absMiddle
src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></A> <FONT
color=black size=2 face=arial>Jaime R Vergara
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>All of yesterday,
thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it
be!</B></FONT></I></DIV></FONT></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: helvetica, arial; COLOR: black"><BR>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"
id=AOLMsgPart_1_f6f64b72-836c-4c8a-808b-ccec20b8c4ce><FONT color=black size=4
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<DIV class=MsoNormal><B>America’s got talent</B></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>We have two singing presidentiables competing for our
attention. Obama did Al Green's <I>Let Us Stay Together, </I>while
Romney belted out the beloved hymn of <I>America the Beautiful. </I>That
each camp found cause to point out deficiencies in the renditions is simply an
unavoidable political hazard.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Singing, of course, is the language of the heart.
The phrase 'Singing Revolution' refers to Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania’s response to the Nazis in WWII, and the Russians during the Cold
War. They were forbidden to sing in public any of their rousing national
songs. The Baltic folks just kept singing, and a recent PBS docu has the
Lithuanian defying their Soviet lords until the Berlin Wall came down, and the
flowering of their voices bloomed and is now digitized for the world.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>The first act of a baby when transitioning from
water-based existence to air-based breathing is to sing. Well, not
exactly to the tune of Beethoven’s Fifth but the <I>waaah</I> wailed when
heard has been known to keep a father’s heart to skip a beat, and a mothers
throat to utter a deep sigh of relief.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>We taught Peace Corps Volunteers in the early 80s
employing the immersion method. One went to class with nothing but the
language being learned. This has pedagogical merit. A baby's way
of learning a first tongue is to hear it spoken, and then to mimic what one
hears. Thus, we learn language by first hearing, then repeating, before
we are confident enough to speak on our own.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Schooling adds reading and writing. We learn to
read, utilizing sounds symbolized by the alphabet. After third grade in
the PSS curriculum, a student reads to learn. We get familiar with
syntax (grammar) and expand word meaning (vocabulary). We are taught to
recognize ratio and afix them with numbers. We objectify patterns that
evolve into what is logical and/or reasonable. Cognition is
birthed.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Intelligence is measured in terms of its facility with
words and numbers, and it expresses sense experience, emotional state, mental
discipline, and willed decision. Hearing words delivered through
familiar music is one of the natural methods of getting fluent in a
language.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Singing has become a lost art in our schools since we
treated music as an academic course. Somehow, we managed to kill the
spirit of singing with either irrelevance (too much reliance on classical
forms), or justifiable boredom (the inanity of the mathematical scale).
We let pros sing our national anthems at public events, promoting their
trademark vocal styles rather than lead a crowd in communal singing. </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>One of the remarkable features of the Olympics is the
playing of one's national anthem when receiving the gold. Almost
invariably, a member of Team China in the medal platform visibly sings
<I>Qilai, Qilai </I>(Arise, arise!), when the national anthem is played.
</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Team America was once a meaningful term. Our 1992
Basketball Team was dubbed the <I>Dream Team.</I> The Dallas Cowboys
called themselves America's Team. Somewhere along the line, tearmwork
got sidelined as stardom shined in the skies. We hope the current team
of superstars retrieves the reputation.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Christianity evolved first as Team <I>Ecclesia </I>(the
Household of God) in the manner of the expected one, Messiah in Hebrew, and
<I><SPAN lang=EL>Κριστοσ</SPAN><SPAN lang=EL> </SPAN></I>in Greek, before it
became idolatrous and began singing the glories of Jesus Christ
Superstar! So this dichotomy is not new.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>China's French Open champion Li Na bolted out of the Team
and went solo on claims that economic gains favored the team's interest too
much. She is not very popular, and her lackluster performance in London,
losing her first game, did not receive much sympathy.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Liu Xiang of the 110m-hurdle capped the gold in the 2004
Athens Olympics, was hounded by all kinds of ailments, got healed and was
poised to reclaim a medal in London. He walked around tagged by a lion's
share of favorable media. He stumbled on the first hurdle of his heat,
and went through tendon surgery. The papparazzi are still on his
tail.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>His expressed sentiment is: "winning a medal is not what
matters; participation does," according to his coach. He shares his
means liberally (e.g., Sichuan earthquake) and remains one of Team China's
staunch members.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Talent in current American parlance is a stardom
category, with competition understood as one besting another.
<I>America's Got Talent</I> on TV mirrors our politics. Wisconsin's Paul
Ryan notwithstanding, Republican conservatives still shun Romney, and Obama
tries to prove he is mainstream and centrist to the Democrats. I would
rather that he be liberal and progressive.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>Obama leads the polls and has an edge on 9 of the 10
swing States in the coming election. The contest, however, is doomed to
be another lose-lose affair, as once more, governance get stuck in grid lock,
and the American people will wail their whine unto the heavens! Team
"Yes, we can" got sidelined by BHO the reluctant superstar!</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>An old guru once wrote: <I>Hope appeareth, but it is not
your Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just
appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it
just appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How
in the world could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to
justify any hope?</I></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><I></I> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>The presidentiables are singing. That's
hopeful!</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal> </DIV><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both"><A
style="FONT: lighter 10px Verdana, Arial; COLOR: #000000"><IMG border=0
align=absMiddle
src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></A> <FONT
color=black size=2 face=arial>Jaime R Vergara
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><I><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>All of yesterday,
thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it
be!</B></FONT></I></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_4f44f7e3-ce14-4b3f-a5d0-6431437f6989 --></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>OE
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