otoh

Back in June [when I was going to post this...] I saw Sally Field [Yeah, I like her!] on The Tonight Show. Among other things, they discussed the infamous Miley Cyrus photos in Vanity Fair.

Ms. Field explained that all young people in the public eye have requests to which they should probably say, “No,” but that it takes experience and maturity to do that. As an example from personal experience she told about an appearance around the time she was starring as The Flying Nun. [I think she said she was a presenter for the Emmys when this happened, but I have searched in vain for any documentation or a copy of the clip they played.] Anyway, they had asked her to fly onto the stage and, just learning to assert herself, she agreed but refused to do so in costume. She would wear her own clothes — a pink pants suit that her mother made for her as I recall. And Jay Leno [super mogul that he is] actually had the clip of that event!

The next day, I happened to see a video of [country music phenom] Taylor Swift’s performance on the ACM Awards show. Now, I don’t watch awards shows. If you watch the video, the vocal performance isn’t very good [they never are on awards shows...] but the visuals are… interesting. Mute it if you have to to make it to the end. Here:

When I saw it I immediately thought about Sally Field’s comments and was sure that this performance was dreamed up by the show’s producers [because it seems that producers always have the sensibility of adolescent boys] and perhaps this was something that Ms. Swift should’ve said no to. After all, the very tall, very thin, and very young Taylor Swift is the embodiment of many young boy’s [and several dirty old men's] dreams. And this… um… might be termed a wet dream. [smirk]

A week or so later I learned that the idea for the waterfall was something that Taylor came up with when she was in middle school [well, I got the adolescent part right anyway] and that she had asked the producers if she could do it. Hmm.

Oh, and [if you've stuck with me this far] you may be wondering what reminded me of all this. One of her other songs is part of a soundtrack “created to inspire and support U.S. Olympic Team athletes as they pursue their Olympic dreams in Beijing”. Of course.

I like watching the Olympics. I’ll often watch sports that I would not watch at any other time (if they’re even broadcast) just because they are Olympic games. [Becky made a similar statement in her recent post.] And this year I’ve found a new twist.

It turns out that in addition to the coverage on NBC, MS-NBC, and USA my cable company has an Olympic Korean channel and an Olympic Mandarin Chinese channel. [There are other premium and HD Olympic channels that I'm not willing to pay for....] So over the weekend I channel-hopped mercilessly and watched a good bit on the Korean channel. [I'm not sure why, but the Chinese channel only broadcasts 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm or I probably would have watched more of it.]

Let me be clear, other than hello, thank you, and a few other odd words [most of them food-related] I do not read, speak, or understand the Chinese or Korean languages. But it matters little. Most of the Olympic games are not very complicated. If it’s a race — whether on foot, on a bike, in or on the water — they’re all trying to get from point A to point B first. If it’s a game — basketball, tennis, soccer, badminton, etc. — I already know the basics. Archery or pistols? Aim. Shoot. Add up the points. Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Wrestling, Fencing — all battles of a sort. Weightlifting — they’re gonna try and pick that thing up. And then they’re gonna try and pick up a bigger one….

I don’t really like watching sports on TV much as a rule. The drivel of the commentators drives me nuts. And I’ve discovered that it’s easier to ignore commentators that are speaking a language I don’t understand anyway! I can read the scores [maybe math really is a universal language]. The names of the athletes and countries are usually recognizable if I’m listening. Besides, they’re often displayed on the screen in English. Plus, the Korean channel has far fewer commercials!