It's still summer here in Moscow and the overall pace isn't really different than anywhere else in the world. Everything's a bit slower. I have trouble keeping to myself when people complain about the red roasting 75 degree heat everyday. There's even a breeze. Soo miserable. I've found some outdoor basketball courts in my venturing and it is absolutely worth the two hours it takes to unlose myself from the maze of subways. It's enough just watching the Eurobros and their mullets go at each other. Getting in on the fray is a different story, but I've managed to hold my own. Strange glances are just one of the many affinities I've gotten used to.
I've been keeping up with the Olympics pretty well, only because the other news to read is War. The politics of the Bejing Olympics have been just as unbelievable as the athletics, not in the awe inspiring Wow Did He Just Do That Michael Phelps unbelieveable sense, but in the What Is Really Going On Here rationale. For example...
* The darling nine year old Lin Miaoke who sang so enchantingly at the opening ceremony actually lip synched the entire song. The original voice, seven year old Yang Peiyi, got the shaft from officials because she just wasn't cute enough for China's desired image under the world's discerning eye.
* The spectacualar fireworks the world viewed from their boobtube during the opening ceremony turned out to be digitally inserted, because not all of the lights and colors witnessed by all in attendence could be "successfully captured" when rendered through a camera lense.
* China's grand flag atop a flagpole in the main statium waved gently in the breeze for all to see, never mind the fact that hardly a breeze could be felt at all, since the flag's grandiose was powered by a hidden airblower.
* Olympic organizers are now admitting to the fact that the reason you don't see many open seats at some of the lesser known events (synchronized gymnastics!) is because a herd of volunteers are rounded up on the spot to fill available seats in choice camera angles.
* What about the Cute as a Panda Bear Chinese Gymnastic's team? Local papers all over China have reported uncovering census documents and such that state the actual age for almost half the girls on the team is around 14, maybe even 12, and definitely not the required age of 16. Even so, they all weigh about as much as Tinkerbell. Perception is everything, and I suppose a little chicanery here and there doesn't hurt.
In the 2004 Olympic Games, Luciando Pavarotti lip synched at the opening ceremonys. But he was old and large and ill and no one seemed to mind because it was still amazing and technically the same person. He could have entered a what? Olympic catagory like synchronized gymanstics and no one would have minded. But the Bejing hijinks are different and perception is everything. Let's pretend that you get off the plane in Bejing and all you see around you is air. But there isn't a single gulp of oxygen to found anywhere.
What you see isn't always what you get.
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Michael Phelps listens to Lil Wayne "I'm Me" before eight gold medals.
The genius of Miles Davis explained.
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