Sat through a few hours of the Olympics opening ceremony (?) and I just don't get it. Maybe it's a cultural thing, maybe it's the way NBC is covering it - I just don't get it. Snoop Dogg shows up a few times to add...something? Kelly Clarkson is a major host? Peyton Manning too? Lady Gaga? Can can dancers - no Crazy Horse Dancers? Gojira? Flaming piano sailing down the Seine? Goofy theatrics, multiple torches? Why was the disguised character carrying one across rooftops and through the Louvre? Why do the torches look like giant blunts? Maybe that explains Snoop's presence? The cauldron is lit in the gondola which floats away over Paris? Is Paris burning? Were the minor "arsons" in the railroad system part of the show? It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks - even the commercials seem a bit nuts. Let the games begin!
I'm not even bothering with it. It seems like every time the Olympics rolls around all we are confronted with is how filthy disgusting and polluted things are, as if no one knew it before and it's some shocking embarrassing surprise.
School us, please. Wikipedia says they were called Godzilla for their first five years but doesn't explain why they changed from what should be a great name. Gojira sounds like a Japanese pronunciation of the same thing. Were they that big in Japan that they changed their name?
Maybe the US men only beating South Sudan by one point in a tuneup game wasn't so embarrassing after all - South Sudan beat Puerto Rico today by 11 points in the opener for both teams. The organizers continue to mess things up - after announcing the South Korean team as being from North Korea in the opening ceremonies, they played the Sudanese national anthem, rather than the South Sudanese national anthem, before the game.
Have you read O! Jerusalem, Freedom at Midnight or I’ll Dress You in Mourning? All outstanding. Those guys had the formula dialed in.
Yes to O Jerusalem!, no to the other two. I'll put Freedom at Midnight on my list, but Hemingway was more than enough for me about bullfighting.
At the introductions for Brazil and Japan women’s soccer the stadium had Brazil versus Spain. Spain, Japan, not much difference I suppose.
Education is a big problem in America. I'm watching all these ignorant people get offended over the opening ceremony not even knowing who Dionysus or Marie Antoinette is. That wasn't a portrayal of the last supper, that's a pagan ritual inspired by Dionysus. People forget that a lot of Christian lore and celebrations come from paganism.
I'm not in any way one of the people calling that a depiction of the last supper, but I'd be interested in knowing which pagan ritual the biblical story of the last supper was depicting.
The ceremony is depicting the "Feast of the Gods" Apollo is often painted with the golden "halo" around his head, because he's a sun god. Now I'm not saying that the Feast of the Gods was copied for the bible story itself, but the artistic depictions look similar in this case. I was speaking in general terms. Usually its not the bible stories themselves, but holiday customs and celebrations that are inherited from previous cultures. This is a 17th century artistic depiction. Sorry about the size, I couldn't find a smaller one.
On far a less annoying note, not watching the Olympics, but Simone Biles crushed it. I saw the video. Team U.S.A. secured Gold because of her. Good for her, what an amazing comeback. I'll never understand how people have that kind of core strength. Where does that come from? I'm serious, how do you do that? When you watch the dynamics of it, I just don't get it. i can only do about 3 push ups.
