Rant of the Week

The Olympics are all about Fakes

 

From steroids to music to politics, the Olympics are all about phoniness and this recent story merely confirms the truth.   Nobody at any level of organization really cares about sport or competition or human achievements or international goodwill or anything like that.  What they care about is selling the advertiser's products and getting great seats for themselves and their relatives and their friends in high office for the gold medal hockey game.

What were they thinking?  They were thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could run the sound of the orchestra through a digital link to the PA system instead of through those darn microphones and mixers that just don't seem to ever make it sound.... you know... just kind of nice.  And what if an orchestra member makes a mistake?  And hell, Obama did it.  And -- better yet-- we can use a more photo-genic orchestra, which could simply mime the performance.  Fabulous!

It's despicable.  But what's really despicable is the way they act after they are caught:  well, what's wrong with it? 

Well, if there isn't anything wrong with it, why not tell everyone that you are broadcasting a recording instead of a performance?  That the performers you see on the screen didn't even perform on the recording.   Why don't you just can the orchestra all together?

Why ban steroids?  If audiences get a bigger thrill from seeing records broken than from seeing a mere race, why not cheat?

Don't forget -- you and I are paying for these people to conduct these obscene rituals of mass manipulation and self aggrandizement.  We are paying for it.

And hurray for Bramwell Tovey, the conductor of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, for refusing to give in on the issue.