Olympic Drama

Even though I haven't watched the Opening Ceremony yet (but will watch it here soon), I've been hearing so much drama that I thought I'd post.



DRAMA!

• The little girl who sang "Ode to the Motherland" was actually lip-synching, and it wasn't even her voice being dubbed! Some government officials decided it would be better for the country's image to have a cute girl singing, and the girl with the best voice was not the cutest girl. I guess it's less of a musical performance and more performance art, or a theatrical-acting type thing...or maybe that just makes it sound less sad for the poor girl who wasn't attractive enough to be featured. At least they both get credit. Full story here.
• Someone sent this article around at work today, and I'm not sure that he knew it was a joke.
• Apparently you could see a blue screen projected at some points during the Opening Ceremony...technical difficulties?
• There's a big to-do about the fact that the fireworks display was actually CGI and not *actual* fireworks. Drama Drama! NBC responded to the "fakery accusations" in this article. I don't know, the excuse of "it's always faked a little" seems to be happening a lot (they said Pavorotti "faked" his singing years ago because of the cold weather). Excuses, excuses. Whatever. I'm sure it looked cool, and they were honest (albeit not totally explicit) about it.

More Phelps tonight...can't wait. I've been avoiding all the sports broadcasting websites so I won't find out results beforehand...not that I really care that much. But geez, that Phelps is ridiculous. Last night, in the qualifying round (not even a *real* competition), he was totally hanging back, looking like he was going to save his energy and just swim hard enough to place - he was at least a half-body length behind, in 2nd or 3rd place. Until the fourth and final lap, when he shot forward and beat everyone else by an entire body length. What the heck, man? He's a machine!