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.)
If curious, you are welcome; not, see you at the bend.
j'aime la vie
Memorable Music and Metaphors of Madness at Marshgate
The evening was billed as a Symphony of British Music, bringing together the best musical starsof the last 50 years, characterizing the tenor of the closing ceremonies of the2012 Olympic Games in London. TheOlympic stadium is on Marshgate Lane in Stratford, London, and madness was atheme early on in the varied performances. We could not resist the alliteration in the title.
Britain of Winston Churchill, complete with a speechifyingPM, along with images of tabloid journalism, the Cardiff cliffs, streetsweepers, the London Eye of the famed Millennium Park Ferris wheel, and cars,cars, cars, set the tone for the evening, beginning at mid-evening summertimein London. Simulcast in the web butdelayed on CCTV by a couple of hours for the morning audience, we missed muchwith the anchor's Zhongwen bantering and the sporadic English subtitles,especially of the performers.
The Empire that first employed oil to power its naval fleet,and became preeminent world power in the 19th century, was authentic indisplaying what the world have wanted from its factory lines ever since. Who hasn't drooled over the majesty of theRolls Royce, the chic leopardine sleekness of the Austin Martin, and thedurability of the workhorse Land Rover?
Yup, the oil guzzlers were up on stage without apology. Very elegantly and arrogantly British!
Impressive was the parade of the international colors,followed by the march of medalists, and joined by the assembly of athletes tothe 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 awardceremony for the marathon, with first finisher from Uganda, the sole medalistfrom the land of the much-maligned Idi Amin.
Recognition of the without-which-there-would-not-be-a-smooth-Olympics,the Volunteers, was poignant to us as we remember our Olympic hosting adviserfrom Sydney of Pinoy descent and pediatric training, who made the trip toLondon earlier to share her wisdom, undertaking such challenges while livingwith the scourge of cancer.
Volunteers were much heralded in the running of the BeijingOlympics and the Shanghai Expo that their tribe henceforth shall be a mainstayin every international sport gathering.
Employed on stage were former British Empire Commonwealthssuch as Indian drums and colorful Sikhs, along with memorable performances ofthe band Queen, joined by Jessie J in the vocals for We will, we will Rock You! Anoticeable 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!
Comedian Eric Idle of the Monty Python fame tore the stadiumdown when he emerged from the bowels of the earth after a feigned failedcannonball shot into the rafters, pranced, and sang on stage ("always lookat the bright side of life") with the Spice Girls, nuns and the dancingSihks, et al.
The Who took a big chunk of the blood pudding, withhit songs like "Baba O'Riley," "My Generation", and theirsignature song from their musical Tommy, "Seeme, feel me/Listening to you." Earlier, Kaiser Chiefs rendered their classic "PinballWizard".
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 criticalin the economy of that land.
The singing of the Olympic anthem is lofty and dignified ifone is a church-going person, but perhaps, for the seculars of our likeness, itis time to jazz it up.
Passing of the Olympic interlocking Penta Rings from London backto IOC President and on to the Mayor of Rio de Janiero stood us up for theperky national anthem of Brazil. Aerialview of the stadium with the Union Jack in the middle surrounded by litBrazilian colors in circles was phenomenol visual assault.
A street sweeper-attired performer (looks like one of theathletes but I could not decipher the Zhongwen commentary) left on stage withan 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, livelyEuroAfrican beats and samba steps, Amazon motiffs, native costumes, and Pele!,on stage.
London Olympics coordinator Stephen Coe said in his farewelladdress: "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 dailyhuman issues as poverty and war. Hauntingin this regard were the children's voices that sang John Lennon song Imagine during the ceremony, followed bya projected image of the Beatle member himself singing his song in a sombermoment.
Snuffing of the Olympic flame surrounded by a lit upstadium, and a last burst of fireworks, the fires were passed on to theemerging Brazilian bird in the background.
"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 thesky," went an ending song. And in acharacteristic British fashion, "We can rule the world!" Nah.
Jacques Rogge, IOC President, bid his grateful adieu. The Who's "See me, feel me, touchme" from Tommy anticipatedCopacobana of Rio. So, all right, Rio, top this one. Here we come, Copa! Got your thongs ready?
Jaime R Vergara
All of yesterday, thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it be!
America’s got talent
We have two singing presidentiables competing for ourattention. Obama did Al Green's Let Us Stay Together, while Romneybelted out the beloved hymn of Americathe Beautiful. That each camp foundcause to point out deficiencies in the renditions is simply an unavoidablepolitical hazard.
Singing, of course, is the language of the heart. The phrase 'Singing Revolution' refers toEstonia, Latvia, and Lithuania’s response to the Nazis in WWII, and theRussians during the Cold War. They wereforbidden to sing in public any of their rousing national songs. The Baltic folks just kept singing, and arecent PBS docu has the Lithuanian defying their Soviet lords until the BerlinWall came down, and the flowering of their voices bloomed and is now digitizedfor the world.
The first act of a baby when transitioning from water-basedexistence to air-based breathing is to sing. Well, not exactly to the tune of Beethoven’s Fifth but the waaah wailed when heard has been knownto keep a father’s heart to skip a beat, and a mothers throat to utter a deepsigh of relief.
We taught Peace Corps Volunteers in the early 80s employingthe immersion method. One went to classwith nothing but the language being learned. This has pedagogical merit. A baby'sway of learning a first tongue is to hear it spoken, and then to mimic what onehears. Thus, we learn language by firsthearing, then repeating, before we are confident enough to speak on our own.
Schooling adds reading and writing. We learn to read, utilizing sounds symbolizedby the alphabet. After third grade inthe PSS curriculum, a student reads to learn. We get familiar with syntax (grammar) and expand word meaning(vocabulary). We are taught to recognizeratio and afix them with numbers. Weobjectify patterns that evolve into what is logical and/or reasonable. Cognition is birthed.
Intelligence is measured in terms of its facility with wordsand numbers, and it expresses sense experience, emotional state, mentaldiscipline, and willed decision. Hearingwords delivered through familiar music is one of the natural methods of gettingfluent in a language.
Singing has become a lost art in our schools since wetreated music as an academic course. Somehow, we managed to kill the spirit of singing with eitherirrelevance (too much reliance on classical forms), or justifiable boredom (theinanity of the mathematical scale). Welet pros sing our national anthems at public events, promoting their trademarkvocal styles rather than lead a crowd in communal singing.
One of the remarkable features of the Olympics is theplaying of one's national anthem when receiving the gold. Almost invariably, a member of Team China inthe medal platform visibly sings Qilai,Qilai (Arise, arise!), when the national anthem is played.
Team America was once a meaningful term. Our 1992 Basketball Team was dubbed the Dream Team. The Dallas Cowboys called themselvesAmerica's Team. Somewhere along theline, tearmwork got sidelined as stardom shined in the skies. We hope the current team of superstarsretrieves the reputation.
Christianity evolved first as Team Ecclesia (the Household of God) in the manner of the expected one,Messiah in Hebrew, and Κριστοσ in Greek,before it became idolatrous and began singing the glories of Jesus ChristSuperstar! So this dichotomy is not new.
China's French Open champion Li Na bolted out of the Teamand went solo on claims that economic gains favored the team's interest toomuch. She is not very popular, and herlackluster performance in London, losing her first game, did not receive muchsympathy.
Liu Xiang of the 110m-hurdle capped the gold in the 2004Athens Olympics, was hounded by all kinds of ailments, got healed and waspoised to reclaim a medal in London. Hewalked around tagged by a lion's share of favorable media. He stumbled on the first hurdle of his heat,and went through tendon surgery. Thepapparazzi are still on his tail.
His expressed sentiment is: "winning a medal is notwhat matters; participation does," according to his coach. He shares his means liberally (e.g., Sichuanearthquake) and remains one of Team China's staunch members.
Talent in current American parlance is a stardom category,with competition understood as one besting another. America'sGot Talent on TV mirrors our politics. Wisconsin's Paul Ryan notwithstanding, Republican conservatives still shunRomney, and Obama tries to prove he is mainstream and centrist to theDemocrats. I would rather that he be liberaland progressive.
Obama leads the polls and has an edge on 9 of the 10 swingStates in the coming election. Thecontest, however, is doomed to be another lose-lose affair, as once more,governance get stuck in grid lock, and the American people will wail theirwhine unto the heavens! Team "Yes,we can" got sidelined by BHO the reluctant superstar!
An old guru once wrote: Hope appeareth, but it is notyour Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—itjust appeareth! You do not evenknow why you hope. How in theworld could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to justifyany hope?
Thepresidentiables are singing. That'shopeful!
Jaime R Vergara
All of yesterday, thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it be!
