She’s the Milli Vanilli of the Olympics and it’s not even her fault:
A little girl and her song captivated millions of viewers during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. But what they saw was not what they heard.
Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s flag was paraded Friday into Beijing’s National Stadium, was not singing at all.
Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.
“The reason was for the national interest,” said Chen Qigang, the ceremony’s musical director, in a state radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. … Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects.”
Upon seeing this, I sense many professional athletes have just involuntarily relieved themselves.
We always knew the Preakness was second rate, but this?
The Summer Olympics begin in Beijing on 8-8-08 at 8:08. (The Chinese being highly numerological people…)
But before you get overwhelmed by the happy-happy and pretty waving flags, remember that some things don’t change.
Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.
Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.
Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of felines, but this is unnecessary no matter what.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle athletes will face in this year’s Olympic Games: Beijing’s polluted air.
Yes, the University of Louisville Cardinals came into Rupp Arena yesterday and put a 89-75 drumming on my beloved Wildcats. Yes Louisville had the better team. And yes, with the talent they have I think Kentucky should be better than they are currently playing. Read the rest of this entry »
