YOG Opening Ceremony.
So I was watching the YOG Opening Ceremony with my family and extended family during a family gathering yesterday. We started watching after they have finished announcing the participating countries, and we cheered loudly when Singapore appeared, almost as if doing that in front of a television would somehow transmit our enthusiasm to the scene itself.
So we were watching the superfluous passing of the flame, and the spammage of torches. Not joking, how many torches were there? There were at least what, 4000 runners, evident from the number tag they all have pinned over their shirt. So the last scene was when the phoenix-boat-thingum made its dramatic way to the stage, and we were all quite awed by the beauty of the boat. It's really quite beautiful, especially when it's illuminated in the night like that, and the spraying water effect was good, almost as if they are its wings. Very nicely done and magnificent, but a bloody waste of money. Taxpayers' money all burnt through just like that.
Singapore is always talking about how this is the 'first YOG held', and that we'd be set on the world's stage, the Singapore brand will be widely publicized, et cetera, thus the $387million spent on it is worth it. But that's a fallacious statement.
FUN FACT: This is NOT the first YOG. OK, maybe it is the first 'YOG', but in spirit, there was a "World Youth Games", held in 1998, bearing the same Olympic logo. Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source of information, but it can't lie so much about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Youth_Games
(Thanks Zapper, for informing me about this)
Why was it discontinued? Would "YOG" suffer the same fate? Are we really "making history" here, seeing as history was already made prior to our attempt at YOG?
Sure, it was majestic, but is it as widely publicized as hoped? If I were to ask people from other countries, would they even know that their country is taking part? I believe that we hosted IMF a few years back, isn't that 'international' enough? We're making so much noise despite our weight, we're making ourselves heard, is there really a need to spend 387million on something like this? Inaugural YOG, yea, beautiful in name. All paid for by our parents as they slog their guts out in work and losing part of their salaries to exploding fireworks.
Enough of that solemn, boring topic of taxpayers' money. If we were to cry over spilt milk all the time we could spend that time licking it up from the floor instead..OK weird analogy. Never mind about that.
So, as I was saying, I was watching the torch relay with my extended family, when the torch bearers had to run on the platforms on the water. My aunt was shouting 'GA LAO ZHUI' (drop into the water!) and we were like chanting it because we did want to observe some kind of drama enfold. It'd be something for the world to remember us by, too, and the best part about that would be us, truly "making history". The platform was lacking in breadth, and there were those drumming things (which to be honest, was spectacular due to the illuminating drumsticks), but we were just hoping for some drama.
And we were all very happy and screamed something along the lines of 'HE DROPPED INTO THE WATER' when the last boy, Darren Choy(?) ran into the water (depth: 5cm) to the foot of the lighthouse-torch-thingum to light it up. It was spectacular, the flame was making revolutions almost as if Charizard used Fire Spin.
My family is full of fun. Kinda retarded, but I guess it runs in the genes (;
Of course, I am proud to be a Singaporean, I am proud that Singapore has the opportunity to host such an event, but I don't think that this is, in any way, 'ground-breaking', or 'making history'. Just because I'm cynical about the packaging of this whole event doesn't mean that I don't love my country. It's just that I find it so...wasteful. I don't know lah. It's fun to watch and fun to see, but it's money we're talking about and I feel the pinch for my parents (because I already tax them by wasting a lot of electricity on the computer).
And..has anyone wondered how much carbon the entire torch relay emits? I'm not a global-warming-activist, I like to pollute the Earth by eating fresh salmon (which may not be fresh..damn I might have been scammed), using the computer and internet excessively, always wasting battery on the phone so I can charge it in school, farting a lot, et cetera, but even I know that this whole thing is just EXCESSIVE^2 pollution. For every runner there's a safety van following, probably more, and there's the people cheering and littering after themselves.
In Singapore it's worse, as mentioned we have at least 4000 runners, we spam torches like free (it changes hands every 100metres...and no, they light another torch instead of simply passing the torch on). Singapore--Not as clean as green as touted eh?
There's so much waste. So so much. Just because it has to be grand doesn't mean it has to be so wasteful.
And I believe that my post on lip-syncing touched some raw nerves a few days back when I posted on National Day, I angered god :c (deliberately left uncapitalized as I don't give a shit about divine references--if they exist they won't be pissed by my insolence anyway). So here's exactly why I don't like lip-syncing. This is also inspired by the YOG Opening Ceremony, in which you can actually hear Sean Kingston's voice despite his apparent absence, bringing to mind the frightening possibility that his spirit resides in the speakers, testament to the power of the 7th lunar month.
(OK I don't really know whether his voice was inside or not, but I'm going to assume that it is.)
For performers, what's important is that they present their best when they are performing. A recorded version could probably be their best yet, but it definitely won't be their best. To simply settle for a recorded version would mean admitting defeat--that their best is such. And to be honest, if I were there at the scene, I'd be contemplating time travel, back to the time when I'm buying the YOG Opening Ceremony tickets to stop myself from doing so. If I want a perfect version of the song, I can watch it on TV, I can download it from the Internet, I can watch it on Youtube, et cetera. There are so many different avenues for me to experience the song in its perfection--why bother going to the live scene for a recorded performance?
If we're willing to accept lip-syncing, why not accept screened drama performances, where people pay to go to a drama theatre to watch the actors seated down watching their own performance beamed by a projector onto a screen? This way we see both perfection and the actors/actresses real life.
If we're willing to accept lip-syncing, what's the point of attending school when we can watch lectures on Youtube or through school portals?
There is an element in being physically present, that cannot be replicated by technology.
Here's another question: Why do people lip-sync? They want to fool the audience. Why would they want to fool the audience? Because they know what they are doing isn't very ethical, but they aren't confident about themselves enough to attempt to replicate what they can do in the studio, live.
I'm not saying that I could be better than them. I really respect performers for what they do, but I don't see a point in lip-syncing. I don't deny that they are talented in their respective fields, and that they will succeed in life while I flail helplessly around, but that doesn't really give them the right to lip-sync and try to pull wool over our eyes.
It's not that bad if they are dancing, at least we know they put in some effort to their performance on stage, but to simply scream into an unplugged microphone, to strum an unplugged guitar, it's kinda senseless and insincere. Anyone can do that. I can do that, I can go online and do the same, while the background music remains their vocals.
That's why I'm quite against lip-syncing. It's just so...sloppy.
-- 8/15/2010 10:09:00 PM
