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Let it go…
Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Rachel Perry | Follow on Twitter
Esperanza you have seen inside the mind of theperrytrain . This got me thinking how the spirit of Olympia grabbed me by the balls, the eyeballs I mean, and intrigued me with the mastery of activities that have no practical application in a modern world. But, I just haven’t been able to let go of this desire to give my two cents about this little singing girl from the Olympic Opening Ceremony. I wanted to let it go because my take on this definitely doesn’t echo popular opinion. Maybe I’m just the devil’s advocate. But how come as soon as you have a stance that doesn’t agree with the popular one you become the devil’s advocate? How come I’m workin’ for the devil all of a sudden? What if the popular opinion is wrong and stupid?
I keep reading blogs and articles expressing vitriol that one of the most touching parts of the OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY featured an adorable little girl singing by herself only to find out later she was lip synching to a different little girls pre-recorded voice. Everyone is saying how wrong it is. I’ve realized that I’m mostly angry that people are making such a big deal about this and the CGI fireworks. SERIOUSLY?! You’re seriously mad about this? “Yes, but those little girls are so young it must hurt their feelings. That poor crooked toothed girl!” First of all, stop projecting your own feelings on a couple of 9 and 7 year old girls. You don’t know how they feel. Just because someone didn’t pick you first in gym class doesn’t mean these girls feel the same way. And don’t feel sorry for that little girl with the crooked teeth. She got the honor of serving her country on the biggest stage in the world even if it was only through her voice. If we’re going to dole out the pity points lets give it to the “cute girl” who now has the whole world knowing that she’s pretty but can’t sing.
Since when are kids not supposed to live in the real world and have their feelings hurt? Get used to it. If this Olympics has taught us anything it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to them. When Ian Thorpe told the media that Michael Phelps was incapable of winning 8 gold medals he took those newspaper articles and put them in his locker as motivation. Now he’s THE GREATEST OLYMPIAN EVER.
I know it isn’t cool to lipsynch in the indie community and any musician worth their salt plays their own instruments and writes their own music but this wasn’t a indie rock show. This wasn’t even Bono doing backing vocals for Radiohead and The Rolling Stones while a reincarnated John Bonham, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain did a naked rendition of The Mikado. This was a basically a blockbuster film performed live created by the biggest film director in China that was 3 years in the making and cost $300 million. This was a special effect.
People are calling the Chinese big fakers now because of something that Americans have been doing for years. Milli Vanilli, THE HILLS, Julia Roberts stomach double in Pretty Woman, even Jennifer Beals had dancing doubles in Flash Dance. This little act of “fakery” is the closest that any American will ever come to bridging the culture gap with China. I may not understand what it is like to grow up in a country I’ve never been to where the average income is $2025 per year, where its not uncommon to eat an egg with a half formed chicken in it, and you’re not even allowed to GOOGLE freely, let alone you have to be on constant watch of having your organs harvested without permission. But I sure as heck know what its like to live in a country where beauty and perfection is admired and rewarded.
So what if China spared no expense to put their best tiny foot forward? If America put on a show like this today and put out a representation of the culture and people of America do you think that we would prance out a bunch of grotesquely overweight, fast food bloated, retarded tabloid fodder, vagina exposing, John Edwards, drug addicts? Nope, we’d show up with Mickey Mouse.
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