Thoughts on the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics

[Baht Simpson]

42 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Michaelangelo's Pieta challanges no one and no accepted norms

At the time The Pieta challenged the norm of the Madonna being an older woman by characterising her as seemngly the same age as her son. Michaelangelo explained it as her appearing young due to her chastity and incorruptibility.

 

He also put rude symbols in some of his paintings. 

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

That's a really interesting point if you're going to use ladyboys why not use good looking ladyboys was it deliberate that all the lady boys they used were so rough looking? And what about the only woman in that group why was she ugly and 400 lbs? What was that statement all about? 

They weren't ladyboys. They were DRAG QUEENS.

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, HauptmannUK said:

I'm not particularly interested in the Olympics but I did watch the opening ceremony. I thought it was pretty lame. Didn't understand the Last Supper scene at all, or its relevance to a sporting event.

I actually visited Paris last year (first time for about ten years) and found it utterly dismal.  I thought London had declined but apart from a few tourist areas Paris is dirty and threatening. Extortionate pricing. Many side alleys smelt like a public toilet. Did not feel like a 'First World' capital at all.

Opening events as demanded in the Olympic charter for any host are not meant to be all about sport per se.

They are mostly about culture. Anyone who has been watching these over the years would know that.

Remember the one in London with the incredible show about the National Health?

The Paris opening event overall was among the most or the most innovative one ever.

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

They knew exactly what they were doing, set out deliberately to do so and now mutter contrived denials and obviously insincere apologies for any offence caused.

 

They deliberately presented a tableaux which set out to mock the "last supper", a central tenet of the Christian (and particularly the Catholic faith); a faith which is strongly represented in France.

 

This tableaux had at best a very tenuous connection with olympic sporting tradition. 

 

I personally, as a Catholic, found it deeply offensive. I usually follow the Olympic Games, recognising and enthusing about the achievements of the participants. Not this time, having seen that, which obviously carries the blessing of the organisers, I couldn't care less!

You might consider reacting like the Mormons did to the Book of Mormon Musical. With good humor instead of insufferable priggishness. Also it wasn't the Last Supper. 

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, Hummin said:

All sounds fine, but a show for the whole world to view, isnt to much to ask for to understand art on this level? 

 

Art like this should seeks it audience and not push it on the world stage for everyone to be forced watching something that really looks something different than what you describes. Just a thought

You mean something like this?

 

[Yellowtail]

"Art imitating life" 

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, John Drake said:

Most of these sports at the Olympics don't get an audience of more than a few hundred people when they are divorced from the games. Basketball is an exception, and I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. But the point is nobody cares about these sports per se. They're only interested in how their countries rank in the medal standings. I'm not. So I'll not be watching any of it--or any of the clumsy "ceremonies." Now, if they thought about putting on a games with real gladiators and the literal last man standing, I might give it a go. Make the drama real.

I attended the Munich Olympics.

There were bawdy shows in the public areas.

It's Europe after all.

Nobody covered the eyes of the kids.

Hotels were full so we slept in public school gyms in the suburbs. 

The hottest tickets for summer were gymnastics, track, and swimming.

I got a lot of the easier to get tickets like fencing and water polo.

I was lucky to get one ticket for a gymnastics event where a girl from my school system was competing. 

The most interesting event was soccer as I attended a game where the Soviet Union was playing and their fans were certainly ... different.

Edited July 29 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

4 hours ago, seajae said:

trouble is the paris olympic organizers are appologizing for the reproduction of leonardo's painting of the last supper, this makes your version wrong so who is telling the truth, the ones that organized it or the ones that are trying to say it depicted something else

No they didn't acknowledge that. They apologized if people were offended by what they did see. 

[herfiehandbag]

10 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You might consider reacting like the Mormons did to the Book of Mormon Musical. With good humor instead of insufferable priggishness. Also it wasn't the Last Supper. 

I am not sure that being offended, by something deliberately designed and planned to offend, is insufferable priggishness!

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, zmisha said:

Medvedev, Ex-president of Russia (Vladimir Putin`s best friend) has recently shared his opinion: "No comment on the Paris Olympics: a disgusting sight. Macron-led France’s turned into a slut grimacing to ululations of a mad, ungodly crowd. Total disgrace. Compare this to the Russia-held brilliant 2014 Sochi Olympics and 2018 FIFA World Cup. Stop watching the ugly freak-show."

Medvedev is a walking freak show himself. The man is insane.

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, Hummin said:

 

What does this have to do with sexual minorities exposing them in such a light at the world stage? Most sexual minorities do not want such exposure, and whose right is it to decide who and what represents them. 

 

Bad taste on a show that was going to include everyone and what was supposed to be the greatest sports event for everybody.

 

Pushing this kind of culture on everybody, creates a stronger counter culture and opposite poles.

 

I usually see myself as liberal, but this have gone to far

 

No group is a monolith.

Why would anyone ask the permission of sexual minorities as if that is a thing to you can ask a question to about a show you were putting on any more than you would ask the permission of sexual majorities (also not a monolith).

You are probably straight but you ain't thinking straight.

 

 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

I am not sure that being offended, by something deliberately designed and planned to offend, is insufferable priggishness!

It wasn't actually. You're looking for things to be offended about.

Again The Book of Mormon was intended to mock all the Mormon beliefs.

The Mormons unlike your very ugly attitude took it to be an opportunity to show that they have a sense of humor.

[Yellowtail]

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It wasn't actually. You're looking for things to be offended about.

Again The Book of Mormon was intended to mock all the Mormon beliefs.

The Mormons unlike your very ugly attitude took it to be an opportunity to show that they have a sense of humor.

So the show was a joke, mocking LGBTs? 

[herfiehandbag]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It wasn't actually. You're looking for things to be offended about.

Again The Book of Mormon was intended to mock all the Mormon beliefs.

The Mormons unlike your very ugly attitude took it to be an opportunity to show that they have a sense of humor.

Again, I don't think my attitude is ugly.

 

They set out to mock and offend, they succeeded with me, so I don't want anything more to do with it. It is as simple as that.

 

I am actually really quite tolerant of the LGBTQ Community; but this went far beyond any accepted demonstration of "pride" or art. It was designed to mock and hurt, and succeeded. 

 

They knew very well what they were doing, they must have known from when the idea was first mooted. I really don't think that not liking it, being offended by it and deciding to ignore the whole business as a consequence is either "insufferable priggishness" or an "ugly attitude"!

[Jingthing]

Just now, herfiehandbag said:

Again, I don't think my attitude is ugly.

 

They set out to mock and offend, they succeeded with me, so I don't want anything more to do with it. It is as simple as that.

 

I am actually really quite tolerant of the LGBTQ Community; but this went far beyond any accepted demonstration of "pride" or art. It was designed to mock and hurt, and succeeded. 

 

They knew very well what they were doing, they must have known from when the idea was first mooted. I really don't think that not liking it, being offended by it and deciding to ignore the whole business as a consequence is either "insufferable priggishness" or an "ugly attitude"!

How moronic.

There was an artistic expression piece, one item in a wonderful Paris Olympic opening show.

In the one piece that you're upset about there were drag queens.

Now totally unfairly you're blaming ALL LGBTQ people for supposedly intentionally offending you?

I call that mindless bigotry.

You would NEVER treat straight people that way.

There are some straight people in a show you don't like.

Blame all straight people!

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

How moronic.

There was an artistic expression piece, one item in a wonderful Paris Olympic opening show.

In the one piece that you're upset about there were drag queens.

Now totally unfairly you're blaming ALL LGBTQ people for supposedly intentionally offending you?

I call that mindless bigotry.

You would NEVER treat straight people that way.

There are some straight people in a show you don't like.

Blame all straight people!

Wow, name calling, what a shock. 

 

How do you get that he thinks it was all LGBRQ+ people intentionally offending him? 

[EVENKEEL]

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

How moronic.

There was an artistic expression piece, one item in a wonderful Paris Olympic opening show.

In the one piece that you're upset about there were drag queens.

Now totally unfairly you're blaming ALL LGBTQ people for supposedly intentionally offending you?

I call that mindless bigotry.

You would NEVER treat straight people that way.

There are some straight people in a show you don't like.

Blame all straight people!

Was the ball sack hanging part of the artistic expression?

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Was the ball sack hanging part of the artistic expression?

Why not?

[GammaGlobulin]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

true and deep appreciation of Pollock, and understand what a blazing genius the man was, and how spectacularly perfect his paintings were

 

Maybe, first, you have to understand fractals....

 

[EVENKEEL]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Why not?

Very classy.

[Jingthing]

Just now, EVENKEEL said:

Very classy.

How is it that you are somehow the judge for all what art can be?

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Maybe, first, you have to understand fractals....

 

why? 

[Yellowtail]

Just now, Jingthing said:

How is it that you are somehow the judge for all what art can be?

Is everyone not a judge?

[Yagoda]

1 hour ago, Baht Simpson said:

At the time The Pieta challenged the norm of the Madonna being an older woman by characterising her as seemngly the same age as her son. Michaelangelo explained it as her appearing young due to her chastity and incorruptibility.

 

He also put rude symbols in some of his paintings. 

I wish this wasnt off topic so I could just destroy your personal interpretation.

[EVENKEEL]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

How is it that you are somehow the judge for all what art can be?

Maybe next time they will pick an Islam theme complete with 72 virgins.

[Baht Simpson]

1 minute ago, Yagoda said:

I wish this wasnt off topic so I could just destroy your personal interpretation.

It's not my interpretation, it's a fact as stated by the official tourist service for Saint Peter's Basilica's "Everything you need to know about Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pietà" . But you know best. 

[GammaGlobulin]

4 hours ago, Baht Simpson said:

Yes, it was literally the feast of the Olympian god Dionysus. The Olympians were the twelve gods of Greek mythology. Hence the depiction.

 

All good things come in twelves, it seems.

Except for my omelet works of art, which come in fives.

 

I like Greek Mythology.

When I was very young, I was forced to read The Iliad.

Then, they forced me to read The Odyssey.

I read the Iliad first.

 

First they forced me to read it in English.

Next, they forced me to read the Ilias in Latin, or some such language.

 

I would have gladly read it in English without any encouragement.

A great book...

 

 

Inside, it looks a little bit like Thai Script.

 

 

I do not know where my copy lies, these days...

Maybe at the bottom of the sea.

 

Tomorrow, I will download a ePUB copy and read it on my Calibre (opensource) ebook reader:

 

Now that France has Trashed Greek Culture...

What with some guy's junk hanging out....

I really feel in the mood...

For a shot of Homer.

 

When I enjoy great art, I feel great.

 

When I watch slovenly pigs at table, I feel dirty, somehow.

 

What do they say in France....?...

 

"vive la différence"?

or

"What Happens in Paris, stays in Paris" !!!

====

 

Note: If you are going to read this stuff.  Might I suggest this, by Lattimore....

 

Always good to begin with a good translation.

 

I will look for a free version, of course, which I will download and read on CALIBRE software, the free and best eBOOK reader on this planet.....bar none.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29 by GammaGlobulin

[Yagoda]

18 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

It's not my interpretation, it's a fact as stated by the official tourist service for Saint Peter's Basilica's "Everything you need to know about Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pietà" . But you know best. 

Bwaaaaaahahahahahah. OK, have fun. Start a thread, I love art history, dont get to discuss it much.

[Yagoda]

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

So the show was a joke, mocking LGBTs? 

LGBTABCDEFGXYZ dont need shows to mock them. they do fine by themselves.

[Yellowtail]

22 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

It's not my interpretation, it's a fact as stated by the official tourist service for Saint Peter's Basilica's "Everything you need to know about Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pietà" . But you know best. 

And what is the copywrite date, 2022?