[Ashin waxing philosophical on the Olympics. I love the picture accompanying this entry on his blog, which is a very busy combination of baseball, the bird's nest stadium, what I think sorta looks like a football helmet and one of the standard StayReal cartoons. My mind is swimming.]
Rather fortuitously, we are once again all five of us watching the Olympic opening ceremonies together,
though shocked to discover four years have already passed.
What has changed is time, in these four years much has happened,
What hasn’t changed is us, once again gathered in a tiny recording studio, using guitars, bass, drums, these four simple instruments [ed. obviously counting Monster's and Stone's guitars separately]
weaving together the emotions of life and other things.
Suddenly I realize, remaining unchanged can also be a kind of rare blessing.
Although this sort of Olympic opening ceremony is something that I’ve watched countless times since childhood,
seeing those five red, green, yellow, blue and black rings
on the white flag shivering and swaying in the wind
still moves me.
Harmony and peace,
these are two simple words
but these are words that remain distant for humanity.
We can excavate deep pits below the earth’s crust, build rockets and space ships, land on the moon,
but true peace is still untouchable.
But seeing those five rings raised above so many different cities
We can still feel deep-down a thousand years of human persistence.
Come!
Although after everything has concluded,
We still will return to the real world and continue living.
However, at least for that moment the torch is lit,
I’m willing to believe.
[If anyone is curious, the Official Theme Song, "You and Me (我和你)" is now out; you can see the video here. It's much slower than I anticipated... and I'm not wild about the Sarah Brightman opera part. Oh well, I almost never like the Olympic theme songs anyway.
Anyway, according to reports, Taiwan got a big cheer at the opening ceremonies, which apparently went off without a hitch, so we can just sit back and enjoy the pagentry. Big dilemma here tonight, though, as the opening ceremonies will be broadcast concurrently with the first pre-season game of the Minnesota Vikings. We're discussing strategies for channel flipping.]
Update: Okay, that was really, really amazing – now it is clear why Ashin was talking so much about harmony, as that character featured prominently in the ceremony. And the torch lighting – incredibly impressive.
Now, the Vikings… not so much.
What?! What happened to all of those songs on that official album that got released? Why’d they choose something like this over Jay or LeeHom? Do they have something against using the electric guitar in the Olympics or something? I’m rather disappointed. I’m recording the ceremonies on DVR, and the satellite for one story in my house doesn’t effect the other, so it doesn’t matter if there’s football on or not. BTW, anyone else notice that there was like no mention at all of the Olympics on ESPN this week? It’s all been Brett Favre and the Jets, Brett Favre and the Jets, all yesterday and all of today!
Ugh, I know; Favre has even dominated the local news here, as there was talk that he would come to the Vikings. We would have had to get over our fifteen-year dislike of the man as a Packer, but frankly, we could use a good quarterback. You’re safe, though – the Panthers don’t play until tomorrow!
I’ve liked almost every Olympic song I’ve heard better than this one, to be honest. But I’m sure others will approve.