wanderer

Olympic weightlifting competition, men's 105+ kg. This is not only for a bragging right to be titled as the strongest man in the world, but also no less heavy Beijing Olympic medal. Tough guys from Russia, Latavia, Ukraine, Germany and the like take turns to do the snatch 3 times and then clean and jerk 3 times, the most total wins. The German guy Matthias Steiner didn't do well on snatch lifting, which was to lift the weight above the head on a squat position then stand up smoothly. Steiner failed his last attempt, his successful 203kg ranked 4th, trail the leading 210kg by Russian. On the jerk lift, his first trial was not good, but on the second he made it for 248kg. While the Russian opponent already had a score of 250kg. Counting the snatch weight, this means Steiner needs lift up 258kg for the gold. Here he came, holding his breath, snap the weight onto his upper chest. The audience was hailing. He let out big breaths to cumulate his last jerk. The steel bar was sagging due to the heavy weight at both ends. Steiner exerted up the weight, steadfastened his steps until judges' green lights were all on. He made it! The next thing was he was screaming, rolling on the floor, jumping up again. His coach rushed to the podium to join the ecstasy, two big macho guys hugged together, the scene looked very funny. As Steiner strode along, the event staff all looked on, with big smile at him.

As the commentator noted, 'Nothing Steiner lifted toward his gold medal weighs as much as he carries with him to the top step of the podium, a photograph of his wife Susanne, who was killed in a car accident last year...' While the national anthem was being played, this big brawny guy showed the photograph on left hand and the gold medal on right hand, in between his chubby beaming face was smiling.  Could there be any image more striking than a rough guy showing his soft side like this? He wins millions' heart along his gold.

The Olympics is a show with four years in the making. It is such a tome epic that you can see any facets of life and people, depending on what angle you look at it. It is a sports event, and it is a culture mixing festival as well.  The opening ceremony stuns billions of audience around the globe, but later reports surfaced that fireworks has part of computer animated, the 55 Chinese minority children are actually Han majority donned the traditional costumes. The biggest conundrum to the westerns is that lip-synching stunt, a cute girl is performing for another not so cute girl but with better voice, reportedly based on an politburo member’s order. The (western) media is crying out cheating and unfair to the girl behind scene, while Chinese officials see to it all too good. This is the culture conflict. Chinese  people care so much of a perfect image, anything serving the purpose is deemed legitimate.  China is a hierarchy society, individualism, or authenticity is surely sacrificed for a grand national interest. Don’t argue these incidents with general Chinese people, they may not get the point at all.

Maybe only on the Olympic stage could some sports be exhibited to larger audiences.  Some of the low profile races are actually more fun to watch than one imagines, disclosing plenty of joy and tears. If the Olympics is a movie, here is the trailer. Take weightlifting. The athletes practice day in and day out for the game, only have 3 times to beat themselves, and strategically and psychologically challenge the opponents by choosing different weight to lift. You see one steps in, with some rituals like musing, or yelling, o r padding hands with powders and so on. Then the player grabs the bar, holding firm and struggling hard for the success. Whether he/she makes it or not, it is truly nerve-wracking to watch, something you may feel like helping out, but you know only he/she can carry along. The power of the game, along with the joyful yelling after success or sighing from audience, is very penetrating.

How about Equestrian? It’s basically a horse’s game, how much does it to do with the jockey other than he/she tries to please the animal well and keeps him/herself on diet not to give the horse overload? The fencing is not easy to enjoy to either the on-site or TV audience, the real competition is far from splendid than those in movies.  And some other games may be viewed only in Olympics. Like  handball, field hockey.  They very much like an alteration from basketball and Ice hockey, it’s fun to watch, it should be fun to play, too. Maybe the organization should do something to popularize the games. Water polo doesn’t look like an agile game, while beach volleyball is more like a body show. But why women’s attire is so sexy but men’s clothing so conservative? Other traditional events like wrestling, gymnastics, diving, have the results subject to judges, In some sense, the athletes are not competing for excellence, but for not making mistakes, It is essentially a mental game. Did you see the crying eyes of the Brazilian gymnast after he stumbled at the finish jump? That’s really hard to swallow.  In the worst scenario, an imbecilic call from one of the judges could ruin an athlete’s life effort, that’s why a Swedish wrestler dropped his bronze medal for protest. The judging system is prone to human errors, let alone possible shady decision from some unfair judges.   Some sports are hard to fathom the beauty to general audience. Synchronous swimming, why the swimmers all put on a clips on their nose and all pile up a fake smile? It’s not pretty. And what are they competing about in Rhythmic Gym and Trampoline? 

The on-site audience knows better how exciting an event could be. Chinese player Lin Dan threw his rackets and shoes to the stands after he won the men’s badminton champion, the lucky guy who got his shoes might keep the smell as well for a good memorabilia. When Usain Bolt won the 100 meter race and rushed to his mom and friends for celebration, two clueless Chinese guys joined the mob-like hug with equally high exhilaration, what does Bolt’s win have anything to do with them? That’s really amusing.

The show is not over, yet. One more week to explore more fun.

 

 

 

The spectacular stunning 29th Olympic Games opening ceremony is breathtaking and awe-inspiring. This is China's reach-out party to the world, and it did live up to all the hype. Zhang Yimou, the mastermind behind the scene, was mentioned numerous times in many corporate new media. He pushed such event to the next level. Ever seen fireworks were set off beyond the stadium but nearly the whole downtown area? Here it is; Ever seen a 3-dimensional performance in a gigantic stadium? It was there; Ever seen those modern crisp color lighting rendering and massive choreography in such a large scale? Ever seen Chinese culture and history were exhibited in a not-overselling, balanced, never-too-humble, never-too-flamboyant but only decent way? It was all there.

Yes, China will be proud of being China and Chinese people be confidence-boosted, at the price of 43billion dollars. Whether this brings outside world a sense of affection, or concerns, worries of menacing, or never undulating blames on human rights, repressive governing and schadenfreude feeling of pollution out of some minds, that is another matter. China is on the right track taking care of the important thing for the people. But the message here is clear, China is a big existence, with some scar in the past or even at present. China is committed to create a harmony in the world stage and willing to compete. This message is sent perfectly as the athletes parade went on when China's delegation walked in, the towering 7'6'' Yao Ming bearing the flag, led the squad side by side with a tiny 9-year-old boy who is an earthquake survivor and young hero who helped save others' lives. What an emblamatic striking image!

There must be some maudlin moments in each individual's life that one feels so much into a piece of music, it is a feeling more than words can describe. Sometimes it is a happy misreading, more often it is a real touch deep in heart. For me this time it is a song probably by Led Zeppelin. I walked into a machine shop, between the striding pounding and high-pitch drilling, an old man's rebellious and tiring voice came out of the radio. Now my usual practice was to exhaust all my search weapons to locate the song, and I haven't succeeded so far. The melody has lost the haunting effect in my mind, but once the song strikes, I will sure know it is the one.

The past epiphany musical moments were similar, everyone could make a narcissistic list, it is nonetheless fun to have some retrospect for the passing years. Here is my version of 'love me, love my dog' song list.

'A man and a woman- U2'; 2 years ago in upstate, NY. driving alone on the frigid highway, Bono is preaching you that there is mysterious distance between man and a woman, true love never can be rent. This song surmountes those holy topics as world peace, Jesus, and sings about mortal love. Still spiritual, and wildly harmonic. Many times I had a tendency holding my breath listening to it, not because of the cold, but for not disturbing the flow of the magical sound;

'100 years - five for fighting'; 3 more years ago in sweltering summer, Arizona. I was in transition, John Ondrasik sings with his not-so-manly voice about a person's life. It certainly reminded me of life and let me pause for a while thinking what life is all about;

'Body and soul-anita baker'; this one was first heard on radio, just catch the name, not the singer. After searching for so long, finally I located it. it opens the R&B door to me. Everytime a black woman's sad sad voice flows out, I have to stop and listen to it;

'I can't make you love me (if you don't)-bonnie raitt'; This song was playing in a desert night in Arizona. The moosoon was running in the darkness, I sit in the car not driving, listening to the dust wind and Bonnie Raitt's voice competiting the roughness in ears. It is again a sad moment; 

'Let's get started-black eyed pea';  This is a song that pumps one's blood and one's spirit as well, a magazine said people would get off the floor whenever Black Eyed Pea's music was on. True. No wonder many college sport venues use this one to ignite the audience's mood. I got to locate the song on a flight; 

'hero-mariah carey'; more than 10 years old song, back in Beijing, China. Mariah was like an angel, singing like an angel. But look at her now, just still like 12 years old.