I can see how the new system I'm trying out, posting several small entries at once, will result with follow-ups. Especially if we have the kind of weeks we've had with the Olympics, invasions, and a quirky Canadian Idol.
But, I'm posting mid-week because...Mookie has been eliminated! This isn't front page news really, except for the fact that ordinary Canadians saw through his mediocrity, while the prestigious judges (singers and producers all) were calling him a Superstar since day one.
Here are my updated thoughts on Mookie, Canadian Olympic medals and how the American women's gymnastics team lost out or two, or even three, medals. And little note on those uncivilized Russians.
Mookie's weird mediocrity is out
I think what is happening in pop culture is a compass showing the general direction of our society. That is why I am fascinated by shows like Canadian Idol, So you think you can dance, and the ever-popular Dancing with the Stars.
These shows really do bring out talented people: dancers, singers, and choreographers. But, sadly, what I keep seeing is that the skills these artists have is mediocre or untapped. How skillful do you really need to be to dance a hip hop number compared to say a ballet sequence? Or sing a Diana Ross song compared to an aria from a Mozart opera? People may have wonderful voices, but if it is not challenged enough, their art becomes compromised.
I felt that Amberly of Canadian Idol fame had the voice, as does Theo. I keep wanting to tell them to go to the Royal Conservatory to learn breathing techniques, and how to reach for the high notes without sounding like a strangled cat, or even how to reach a note from above, to ensure its correct pitch, rather than from below making it a guaranteed flat note.
Or just listen to some really good folk songs.
Talent is innate, skill is learned. Both need each other. Contemporary artists think they can just glide along with their talent.
Still, I have some faith in ordinary people to figure out what is good or not. Mookie was voted out! To the surprise of the eulogizing four judges, whose strange blindness to Mookie's mediocrity I think I figured out here when I wrote:
It is the Canadian niceness to strangers (and exotica). Although I think that was a learned behavior, and one that occurred much later than we think. And Mookie Morris (yes, Mookie) does look exotic. And that often puts a blind spot, and a deaf ear, on modern, hip Canadians.
Is the Canadian Karma broken?
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Commentators were ecstatic over the surge of medals won between Saturday and today - a climb from seven to thirteen.
Well, look at it this way, Britain now has 36, Australia 35, France 29, Japan 23, and even Germany, from whom we expect so much more, has 28.
I think this little story sums up the whole problem.
Ian Millar makes it to the Olympics equestrian team a few months after his wife's (of 39 years) passing. He won his first and only Olympic medal, after several decades of entering Olympics games. In an interview, there was a quiet passion behind his quest for the medal, and he did say he was doing it in honor of his wife.
That is the passion that is lacking in Canadian athletes. I don't doubt their sincerity in trying for gold, but something is holding them back. An unabashed Canadianness is missing.
Many will say that is the Canadian way, but it is incorrect. "Proud to be Canadian" is aggressively declared at many instances, but usually as a self-conscious defense mechanism in retaliation to the Americans.
It is necessary to make that an offensive, and like I said, unabashed, declaration. As in the case of Millar, I can say that it was his love for his wife that transcended his losing streak - in nine Olympics! - that gave him his medal. Canadian athletes need to find that love of country in its purest form.
In these Chinese Olympics, there are no 10s, and a tie is not a tie
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I suggested that Alicia was on to something when I wrote about the "invisible Chinese intimidation." From day one, she looked extremely uncomfortable being in the stadium. I attributed it to her super-sensitive nature picking up on invisible vibes. The silently aggressive Chinese, the under-age Chinese gymnasts, the possible antagonism (worse than aggression) that she felt towards Americans (this is an unexplored idea of mine that Chinese desire for world power will makes them anti-American more than anti-European, anti-French or even anti-Canadian.)
And here are three instances where this negativity played itself out:
- In the team competitions, as I pointed out, the American team coach did talk of a psychological warfare going on by the Chinese. Demonstrated, according to her, when Alicia was kept for an unusually long time from performing after her name was called out for an event. This made her nervous, lose her balance and lose the team's gold medal.
- Once again, although she performed reasonably well on the vaults, Alicia lost another medal to her Chinese adversary, who had many more deductible points including landing on her knees. Alicia lost the bronze medal to her.
- Finally, gold medal winner Nastia Liukin had tied with Chinese gymnast He on the uneven bars, but she received more "deductible points" and was given the silver instead of a tie gold.
I think the Chinese were banking on winning big in gymnastics, as they were in diving. But, they were confronted with a strong and high-ranking American gymnastics team. These little episodes in the National Stadium with the women's gymnastics team, although difficult to pin down, I think give us an idea of some of the lengths Chinese will go to ensure their hegemony.
I don't think they will be fair players at all.
Those uncivilized Russians
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I've written previously of the 19th century French influence on the Russian aristocrats, but neglected to write about some of the most famous marriages between European and Russian monarchs: Queen Victoria's son Prince Alfred, who was at one time second-in-line to the British throne, married Russia's Princess Maria Alexandrovna. And Victoria's granddaughter, born from the marriage of her daughter Princess Alice and and the Grand Duke of Hesse, Louis IV, married Tsar Nicholas II. Their son Alexis would have become Tsar, had not been for the Russian revolution.
Russia was very much part of the European monarchies' wielding of power through marriage between national princes and princesses.