The Perfect New Man
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I superimposed a photo of Michael Phelps over Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. Phelps's left arm, and the left side of his body, is facing slightly backwards in the photo, making the superimposition imperfect. I'm certain if we could get a full frontal pose, it would be close-to-perfect.
[Update: I will try to do the calculations to see if the Vitruvian Man and Phelps do indeed match. We have the numbers for Phelps's proportions, I'll look for Leonardo's].
But, it is still alarming how well Michael Phelps's body superimposes over the Vitruvian Man. His last competition, where he won the 100-meter butterfly by 1/100 of a second, is being replayed over and over. Some are calling it luck. I think there is a mental activity going on during the race. Phelps himself said he had to make a micro-second decision whether to coast to the finish, or to add an extra stroke to pull himself to the wall. This is all taking place in micro-seconds! He chose the latter, and the rest is history.
This very interesting discussion came up at the View from the Right just after I composed this post on Phelps.
The Karma of Canada's Olympic Costumes
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I wrote a long article (which I sent to 37 Ontario papers and three national ones, and only got a first response from two) on the dismal choices the Canadian Olympics uniform design team made. Besides a really unsightly pattern, which makes some of the clothing look like pajamas, I was distressed at how the designers used mostly Chinese symbols and lucky charms on the clothing that Canadian athletes would wear to compete against those very same Chinese. I ominously wrote:
Our Canadian athletes have now the added burden of warding-off the mixed signals their clothing gives them. If there ever was an unlucky charm, it would have to be their costume, which drains the Canadianness out of the athletes and infuses them with their competitor’s spells.Well, this is already day eight, and only three medals from the Canadian team. Smaller countries such as Great Britain and France are already amassing medals in the high teens and twenties. Symbols mean something, and if sport's competitors are so willing to accept those from alien nations (their rivals!), then their whole attitudes towards sports, winning, and bringing back glory to their nation is in question.
Something is seriously wrong here.
Chinese invisible intimidation?
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Once again, images speak more than words. Alicia Sacramone, the older team leader of the American women's gymnastics team, has been in a bad humor throughout this competition. She's a more emotional gymnast, unlike the rigidly self-controlling Nastia Liukin, and the easy-going, but focussed Shawn Johnson. Her photo and video shots constantly show her with bewildered eyes, and nervous glances. What could have set her off?
Well for starters, there is the the possibility (probability?) of under-age Chinese competitors. There is also the aggressive declaration of the Chinese that they are out to get gold for "the glory of the motherland."
This, added with the strange, combative, even hostile, faces of the Chinese athletes I blogged about earlier, must have had its toll.
I think Sacramone is reacting to a general malaise, which she couldn't pin-down. She even blamed herself for her misses which cost her team their gold. Her team's coach, though, has said that Alicia was made to wait an inordinately long time before her performance as a "psychological warfare" by the Chinese to disarm her.
So, is this what we are to expect from the Chinese? Ambiguously aggressive faces, "we'll get yous" behind smiling faces, outright deception and lies? I think we should paying attention to the Alicias of the world, who for some reason seem to have a high detection - or at least, reaction - level for those apparently invisible signs of hostility.
The subjective rankings of Canadian Idol - sounds like the Olympics gymnastics
Amberly is heading home. I think she would have sung some lovely Beatles' songs booked for next week's show. But, it is a tight race, and her last performance was flat and strained. She had been practicing with her guitar, and I think she missed it during the performance.
But, the big news is still Mookie. And he's as unconvincing as ever. I think he's trying for a Billy Idol-Iggy Pop and, as his last song choice showed, the bad boys of the sixties all meshed in one. Billy Idol and Iggy Pop actually have very good voices, and with quite a wide range, unlike Mookie. They were able to sing great ballads, as well as their more "wilder" songs.
Mookie's strange rhythmic exercise (2min17 point) on "close your eyes girl" were distracting (here is the original from Steppenwolf), making me doubt those abilities too; he's done this in another song.
But the worst is bringing in the DJ with the turntable, as in rock-turns-house. I expect Mookie will start milking all these multi-culti, fusion variations to make up for his lack of vocal talent. And yes, he's already a Superstar, according to Sass Jordan, who had nothing to qualify that statement with.
So, what's my point? I still think that Canadians are being taken for a ride by the "experts." Like the Olympics costume debacle, they are taken in by a flashy exterior and ignore more subtle and enduring skills. There is a general laziness and willingness to go for quick gratifications that is in the process of ruining the arts, whether they be in music, architecture, design, and television shows.
How does one conquer the brute force of Russia?
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Almost everyone is talking and writing about Russia's craze for power, her return to the Cold War mentality, how the West should handle this brute force that is Russia, a brute force much like what she had been throughout her history - Soviet era, 19th century expansion, the time of the Tsars, you name it. Russia becomes synonymous with civilization destroyer.
So, how about the centuries old Hermitage Museum? The original building was designed following the Versailles Palace of France, under the direction of Peter the Great, who built his whole city - St. Petersburg - using European models and architects. Later on, Catherine the Great started her great collection of European art there, which continues to this day.
Catherine the Great also corresponded for years with French philosopher Voltaire, although his Enlightenment ideas don't necessarily show themselves in her reign. French, rather than Russian, was the language of the Russian aristocrats throughout the nineteenth century, and many Russians looked to Western Europe and France for culture and the arts.
Brute force and civilization destroyer, indeed.