Unless you’ve been hibernating in a cave somewhere, you’ll know that the Winter Olympics have begun in Vancouver. Canada, of course, has been saturated with the stuff for months now, wall-to-wall coverage of torch runs through tiny towns from one end of the country to the other, relentless merchandising by HBC (nee Hudson’s Bay Company, incorporated in 1670 by King Charles II) of their deadly dull Olympic apparel, etc. etc. etc.
Not to put a tooth in it, the whole thing is driving me insane. Gazillions of dollars being poured out so that countries can parade their doped to the eyeballs athletes before the world and claim bragging rights as great nations because their ice dancers can out-pirouette some other country’s ice dancers, while a bunch of toothless geriatrics (aka the International Olympic Committee) lay down ridiculous procedural rules designed to protect their lucrative trade marks, at the same time ignoring blatant cheating? Give me a break.
Like I say, it drives me bonkers. But what makes me want to reach for the nearest weapon of mass destruction is the bloody so-called Olympic “anthem,” “I Believe.” With all due respect to the singer, who seems like a nice lass, not a bit of side to her, unlike her fellow-Quebecer, Celine Dion, who has completely lost the run of herself, that song makes my ears bleed. And the refrain, repeated endlessly as refrains are wont to be, “I believe that together we will fly / I believe in the power of you and I,” is like a thousand nails on a thousand blackboards. Hanging by his or her dangly bits is too good for whoever came up with that one.
Athletic contests do seem to bring out the worst in songwriters. I have no idea what sort of music was composed for last year’s summer Olympics in Beijing, but am pretty confident it was pretty godawfully bombastic.
After reading your post, I looked around the Web for more info. (I haven’t heard “I Believe,” and don’t intend to scout it out now. Heh.) I did find a recent song by Sarah McLachlan, “One Dream,” which apparently is the official Vancouver Olympics theme. It may have been too indirect and non-repetitive for consideration to be played over and over and over and over in commercials, though. No hook, y’know.
I will probably watch some of the winter games. Except for hockey and such head-to-head contests, which I never watch, the winter version always seems to me to be marginally less nationalistic than the summer ones. Plus, The Missus and I got married in Vancouver and love the city. Patsies, I know.
Thanks for all the ‘tubes, Tessa, myself and the grandgirl enjoyed them here in Highspeed Heaven last night.
I agree on the Olympics songie thingie, gg and I rolled our eyes and agreed we were oddly disaffected.
XO
WWW
Well, what with tragic fatalities, temperatures in the 40’s and lots of rain and fog, I might begin to believe that the gods are not smiling on these games.
“The power of you and I” Oh my, oh dear! What will become of the language?
Anne’s right, as usual. To hell with the Olympics; let’s (you and *me*) try to save the English language.
But Tessa, tell us how you really feel. LMAO!
We have all these joys to come where half of our capital city will be demolished to make way for this shenanigans in 2012 and no one will be able to get either in or out of our metropolis for months on end.
Go away Olympics. London does not need you. It is already on the map and taking up far too much space.
Oh, dear! I am so glad I have not heard that anthem yet.