[Charchar]

Originally Posted by dark_9tails

yeah...the opening is sure amazing!!!....it's sooooo cool!!!!......i've watched some....such as men's 400m swim....korea won the first place....and it was the first time in history!!!....

Yeah. That was Park Tae Hwan (I think. ><).
It was shocking because at his last competition, not sure which, he got disqualified for falling into the water.
Who knew he'd be this good?

Originally Posted by TheRandomChocolate

I watched all of the opening... It was awesome... it's so cool that they involved kids in it as well... the fireworks were amazing (but must have caused a lot of pollution @_@)

Yeah, well some of it were faked. According to a London Newspaper, some of the fireworks you saw on tv, were pretaped earlier.
Eh. But who cares right?

[Aurora Moon]

Yeah, the opening was just fab.

I've been having a ball just watching the different events, such as the handball competition which was really interesting.

[TheRandomChocolate]

Originally Posted by Charchar

Yeah. That was Park Tae Hwan (I think. ><).
It was shocking because at his last competition, not sure which, he got disqualified for falling into the water.
Who knew he'd be this good?


Yeah, well some of it were faked. According to a London Newspaper, some of the fireworks you saw on tv, were pretaped earlier.
Eh. But who cares right?

Really? In the London newspaper... I live in London but I obviously haven't been reading the newspapers... Yeah... but it still looked amazing XD

[blissfulmemories]

Originally Posted by Charchar

Stayed up til 5am watching the Olympics. ;3
So far, I've watched the volleyball, swimming (woo! Michael Phelps!), Archery, Soccer, Diving, and gymnastics.
Although, I missed the match between USA and China in Basketball, which I was looking forward to. -____-

I watched it!!!!!
It was good as far as all basketball games go. Nothing impressive though....but I might be biased since I was a bit upset that my favorite basketball player wasnt there!!! URGH!!! How could they not put Allen Iverson on the All Star Team!!! >_____________________<
Yao Ming played ok for the first half, but after half time, he started losing it. China lost by 31 whomping points. Dont remember the exact score though....
Planning on watching any of the women's games' today?

[ShyV no Kawaiii]

i watch the olympic games!!!
i watch basketball^^ (china vs USA) but it was clear that china would lose there is kobe bryant, lebron james and jason kidd!!! maaan...
and the matches from germany, too

[WesisacoolG]

can't wait till this weekend for the track and field events to start

[Striped_Scarlet]

I am not watching the Olympics due to China's various human rights violation and positions regarding such issues as the crisis (political accepted, even though internationally known as genocide) in Darfur, the issue with Tibet as well as their stand on the death penalty and etc.

BUT what I wanted to say, is I did notice an interesting article in the news about the Olympic opening. The case was that the little Chinese girl who sung the national anthem in the 'cute little red dress' was actually not singing. She was miming. Instead another little girl who had a beautiful voice was hidden but her voice was heard by the viewers and believed to be coming from the shown girl. The hidden girl was not chosen because she was seen as not being pretty enough... and since any host of the Olympics want to be show the 'best image'... they decided to use another girl who had a 'prettier face' yet use the voice of the other girl. Absolutely disgusting. What message is that telling to children... or anyone? You might have a lot of talent, but if your not pretty enough than... what? You will be stashed away and robbed of your chance to shine... while another will get the spotlight. The girl with the beautiful voice (as it was said to have been, since i did not watch the show) appeared to very adorable and pretty....

But once again, media has once again established that appearance comes before talent and that the world is still one shaped and influenced by petty and disgusting preconceived notions of beauty. Grr.

And I am not condemning China for using this ploy for China is not the only one guilty of doing such actions. I pretty sure this practice has been going on for many many years.... it just sickens me to see this- Having a child be told she is not pretty enough yet saying she is good enough to have her voice associated with another girl. Gr.

[ECCENTRiK]

Damn, Phelps now has 11 gold medals O.O He's goooooood. GO US! xD

ACK, China won the women's team gymnastics. I felt really bad for that girl in the US who fell in both activites >.< And the cameras were not being nice either, closing up on her when she's clearly about to cry. Hopefully US can comeback in the all arounds.

I heard about that too. It's pretty sad, though I'm not surprised. Society been like this for centuries. Society sees beauty for what it is for the outside. Look at the celebrities (actors, singers, models, famous figures), they are picture perfect (thanks to plastic surgery and $$$). Especially in asian countries, its what on the outside that counts, if you don't fit to their standards, you're gonna be in the background....

[Striped_Scarlet]

You think after witnessing this for the last 2 decades or so... I would get use to this superficial idea of what constitutes beauty and etc.... but I haven't... ESPECIALLY when it targets young children. Eating disorders, as well as cosmetic surgeries are on the rise.... ARGGGH

Oh, and my family is out to get me. I've told them that I'm boycotting the Olympics so what do they do... make sure every tv in displaying the games... great! I was quarantined to my room.

EDIT: Did not see the last part.... the young girl who was hidden WAS adorable and just as presentable as the 'girl in the red dress'. If they really wanted to find someone presentable than they should have at least chosen another girl who had the 'looks' and the voice. They should never have used the little girl's voice and tell her she can not be present to the viewers since she wasn't good enough..... can you say huge blow... even if it does not hit her now... when she gets older, it will. Disgusting.

EDIT x2: Wow. The last paragraph you had just got deleted.... so my little rant made some sense- it had to deal with something about how if you were China you would want to want to make the best appearance, or something like that.

[ECCENTRiK]

The girl in the red dress with the pigtails, called Lin Miaoke, 9, and from a Beijing primary school, has become a national sensation since Friday night, giving interviews to all the most popular newspapers.

But the show's musical designer felt forced to set the record straight. He gave an interview to Beijing radio saying the real singer was a seven-year-old girl who had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, a patriotic song called "Hymn to the Motherland".

At the last moment a member of the Chinese politburo who was watching a rehearsal pronounced that the winner, a girl called Yang Peiyi, might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth.

So, on the night, while a pre-recording of Yang Peiyi singing was played, Lin Miaoke, who has already featured in television advertisements, was seen but not heard.

"This was a last-minute question, a choice we had to make," the ceremony's musical designer, Chen Qigang, said. "Our rehearsals had already been vetted several times - they were all very strict. When we had the dress rehearsals, there were spectators from various divisions, including above all a member of the politburo who gave us his verdict: we had to make the swap."

Mr Chen's interview gave an extraordinary insight into the control exercised over the ceremony by the Games' political overseers, all to ensure the country was seen at its best.

Officials have already admitted that the pictures of giant firework footprints which marched across Beijing towards the stadium on Friday night were prerecorded, digitally enhanced and inserted into footage beamed across the world.

Mr Chen said the initial hopefuls to sing the anthem had been reduced to ten, and one, a ten-year-old, had originally been chosen for the quality of her voice. But she, too, had fallen by the wayside because she was not "cute" enough.

"We used her to sing in all the rehearsals," Mr Chen said. "But in the end the director thought her image was not the most appropriate, because she was a little too old. Regrettably, we had to let her go."

At that point Yang Peiyi stepped up to the plate.

"The main consideration was the national interest," he said. "The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team."

That was until attention turned to Yang Peiyi's teeth. Nevertheless, Mr Chen thought the end result a perfect compromise.

"We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation," he said. "We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture.

"Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter.

"So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi - after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team's view, all together."

One question remains: why was Lin Miaoke allowed to give interviews in which she lapped up the praise for her singing. Mr Chen said she might not have known that the words she was singing could not be heard. She had, in fact, only known she was going to perform at all 15 minutes beforehand.

Yang Peiyi is said to have reacted well to the disappointment. "I am proud to have been chosen to sing at all," she is reported to have said.

Yeah, sorry. It was disorganized >.< Here's the article from what I was referring to before.