Music Monday: The BEST Part of the London Olympic Ceremonies

Sometimes I am reminded how much better the world is with a little humor, when something knows it is beautiful and serious, and yet can laugh at itself. 

I caught a lot of the Olympics, but an ill-timed flight in July made me miss the opening ceremonies. Honestly, if you missed it, too, you didn't miss much. For some reason organizers decided a five-line speech from Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest was enough to represent the greatest writer of all time, and they pretty much skipped over the rest of British history until the Industrial Revolution, which was, well, revolting.

But one tiny glimmer of loveliness came out of the otherwise boring and clumsy presentation, and it involved the theme from Chariots of Fire, accompanied by none other than Mr. Bean. Due to copyright laws, I can't post it here, but I laughed and laughed. My kids are fans of Mr. Bean, for he's over the top stupid. Usually that simply irritates me, but his humor this time was spot on. 

And it's humor with music. It's along the same lines of the Looney Tunes' "What's Opera, Doc?" Brilliant use of beautiful music to create comedy. 

I forgive all the rest of the crappy ceremony because of it. Okay, maybe not. I am such an anglophile that I was hoping for spectacle that truly reflected the history of my favorite place. Where was King Arthur? Where were the bagpipes? Why ignore 90% of their own history?

Pretty sad when Mr. Bean is the only bright spot. Bright spot he was, though, thank God.

Developing Writers

I'm busy writing (hurray!), but I found this intriguing article today on Slate, which you can read here.

It compares Renaissance London to today's Topeka, Kansas, and thus shows us through the comparison how little we as a society tend to value writers. The article, written by Bill James, outlines four things we do for athletes that we do not do for writers:

First, we give them the opportunity to compete at a young age.

Second, we recognize and identify ability at a young age.

Third, we celebrate athletes' success constantly. We show up at their games and cheer. We give them trophies. When they get to be teenagers, if they're still good, we put their names in the newspaper once in a while.

Fourth, we pay them for potential, rather than simply paying them once they get to be among the best in the world.

While I can't agree with everything in the article, I do agree with his main point: instead of criticizing what we do to push athletics, let's just do the same thing for the artists and writers of our society, so that their skills are honed and encouraged as well.

I've been toying with getting my daughter art classes for a while now. I'm not toying with it any more. I think there's an art camp--and a theatre camp--she can join this summer, too. She's an artist with more talent at ten than I have at 41, and she can go a long way with the right encouragement and training.

And it's time to start a writer's group. Here. Now.

Wish me luck!