Winter Olympics > Summer Olympics
I wonder, if there's a word for "sohvaperuna" in English. Couch potato? That does sound vaguely familiar so maybe it's the correct term. Anyway, I spent basically the whole day watching television. I didn't mean to, but when I was heading to sauna in the afternoon the Olympic ending ceremony was on telly and I'm glad that I watched it because it was awesome. The beginning with the bell girls and round bicycles and the human torch at the end, I was really moved by it. East-Asian cultures have a gift of bringing harmony with colors and shapes. I wish that I would've watched the opening ceremony as I heard that there were 2008 people doing tai chi there. I'll just have to hunt it down on Youtube or something.
Looking at the Olympic ceremony made me wonder how Finland managed to pull it off so shortly after the war. I wasn't alive in 1952 (and I don't think that anybody on my flist was either), but it must've been quite an achievement. Finland was supposed to hold the Olympic games in 1940, but they were canceled due to World War II. Olympics must've been much more low key back then, but it still seems amazing that Finland organized them under those conditions. Just seven years after war had ended and Soviet and German troops had fell back from Finland. Finland had to give over areas to Soviet Union and pay heavy war reparations (sotakorvaus) to SU. 400000 people had to be evacuated from the ceded areas and housed. That's a lot considering that the whole population must've been something like 4 million at the time. Food and necessities were rationed years after the war. And then they go and hold the Olympics in 1952. o.O It must've had a great psychological boost for the Finns, after what happened in the war. And we have the Olympic stadium to remind us of it still. It has this high tower with a great view. I should go and take some photos from there sometime. I wonder, if my grandpa was at the '52 Olympics as he was really into sports. I'll have to ask my grandma next time.
I watched the Olympics on a couple of days, mainly men's whataretheycalled where they jump into the pool. My dictionary says "dive" is the word. I also watched running. I didn't actually care about who won as I mainly watched Olympics for the aesthetic pleasure of watching how elegantly and efficiently the athletes move. (That's a nice way of saying that I like ogling their bodies.)
But watching the Olympic games also made me realize that I enjoy Winter Olympics a lot more than Summer Olympics. They have more speed. You just can't go as fast on feet (like how most Summer sports are played) than you can go on ice skates or skis. Sure bicycling, rowing and sailing are pretty fast but they have nothing when compared to sledding, or whatever it's called when the team jumps into the metal sled that looks like a bullet and they go down on this steep icy route. It looks like they're going really fast. I prefer to watch ice hockey over football and skiing rather than running. Winter sports are just more fun. Maybe the fact that Finns tend to get more medals from Winter sports than Summer sports also has something to do with it. And both of my grandpas always watched all the skiing or ski jumping competitions on telly when we were visiting, so it was either watch skiing or think of something else to do. (And I didn't actually enjoy watching skiing as a kid.) During the last Winter Olympics I got addicted to watching curling of all things. -_-I had time to go to sauna and make some dinner before Dudamel was on telly. I had waited the whole week to see it. Gustavo Dudamel is one of the rising conductors and he's got amazing talent. He's going to be leading the LA philharmonics after Esa-Pekka Salonen (famous Finnish conductor) in 2009. I watched a documentary about how classical music is saving the youth of Venezuela and this concert where Dudamel was conducting his home orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar at the capital of Venezuela. They were really good and they made classical music fun.
The ending song of the concert, Mambo, was unlike anything that I've ever seen in a classical concert. Just wow. The audience was clapping through the whole thing, the players stood up at times and danced on their places and they also spun their instruments around. So much energy. What I would give to play with Dudamel and people like that. They were having so much fun! My Finnish readers can watch the concert on Yle Areena. The quintetto in the middle was really good as well. The violist had some serious skill. And they played Piazzolla(!), but if it was a song that I've played, it was a very different version at least. Dudamel had a concert here a couple of weeks ago, but of course it was sold out and it probably cost a great deal as well. First it seemed kinda strange that a conductor is famous like a rock star, but after seeing him perform (on telly) I can understand that.Last Night I had the second dream this Summer where I was singing. I had to hunt down the previous dream and it was back in June. I forgot a great deal about last night's dream, but I do remember the part where I was singing. I was in a bathroom of all places at some house and I was sitting on the toilet lid singing. The weird part was that I was singing based on these images that were on the toilet paper roll. It was like there were abstract shapes and colors painted on the toilet paper and I sang those and rolled more and more paper slowly from the roll as I sang. There were lots of light colors like yellow and pastel shades. This time it was like either I wasn't in my own body or I wasn't me. There was something very strange about it and I didn't really understand it. Just that it wasn't all me, the singing. Maybe somebody was forcing me to do it, I dunno. But I did sing very beautifully. My unconscious has really fixated on this singing business.
[EDIT]
I still phail at html. Fixed.
Looking at the Olympic ceremony made me wonder how Finland managed to pull it off so shortly after the war. I wasn't alive in 1952 (and I don't think that anybody on my flist was either), but it must've been quite an achievement. Finland was supposed to hold the Olympic games in 1940, but they were canceled due to World War II. Olympics must've been much more low key back then, but it still seems amazing that Finland organized them under those conditions. Just seven years after war had ended and Soviet and German troops had fell back from Finland. Finland had to give over areas to Soviet Union and pay heavy war reparations (sotakorvaus) to SU. 400000 people had to be evacuated from the ceded areas and housed. That's a lot considering that the whole population must've been something like 4 million at the time. Food and necessities were rationed years after the war. And then they go and hold the Olympics in 1952. o.O It must've had a great psychological boost for the Finns, after what happened in the war. And we have the Olympic stadium to remind us of it still. It has this high tower with a great view. I should go and take some photos from there sometime. I wonder, if my grandpa was at the '52 Olympics as he was really into sports. I'll have to ask my grandma next time.
I watched the Olympics on a couple of days, mainly men's whataretheycalled where they jump into the pool. My dictionary says "dive" is the word. I also watched running. I didn't actually care about who won as I mainly watched Olympics for the aesthetic pleasure of watching how elegantly and efficiently the athletes move. (That's a nice way of saying that I like ogling their bodies.)
But watching the Olympic games also made me realize that I enjoy Winter Olympics a lot more than Summer Olympics. They have more speed. You just can't go as fast on feet (like how most Summer sports are played) than you can go on ice skates or skis. Sure bicycling, rowing and sailing are pretty fast but they have nothing when compared to sledding, or whatever it's called when the team jumps into the metal sled that looks like a bullet and they go down on this steep icy route. It looks like they're going really fast. I prefer to watch ice hockey over football and skiing rather than running. Winter sports are just more fun. Maybe the fact that Finns tend to get more medals from Winter sports than Summer sports also has something to do with it. And both of my grandpas always watched all the skiing or ski jumping competitions on telly when we were visiting, so it was either watch skiing or think of something else to do. (And I didn't actually enjoy watching skiing as a kid.) During the last Winter Olympics I got addicted to watching curling of all things. -_-I had time to go to sauna and make some dinner before Dudamel was on telly. I had waited the whole week to see it. Gustavo Dudamel is one of the rising conductors and he's got amazing talent. He's going to be leading the LA philharmonics after Esa-Pekka Salonen (famous Finnish conductor) in 2009. I watched a documentary about how classical music is saving the youth of Venezuela and this concert where Dudamel was conducting his home orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar at the capital of Venezuela. They were really good and they made classical music fun.
The ending song of the concert, Mambo, was unlike anything that I've ever seen in a classical concert. Just wow. The audience was clapping through the whole thing, the players stood up at times and danced on their places and they also spun their instruments around. So much energy. What I would give to play with Dudamel and people like that. They were having so much fun! My Finnish readers can watch the concert on Yle Areena. The quintetto in the middle was really good as well. The violist had some serious skill. And they played Piazzolla(!), but if it was a song that I've played, it was a very different version at least. Dudamel had a concert here a couple of weeks ago, but of course it was sold out and it probably cost a great deal as well. First it seemed kinda strange that a conductor is famous like a rock star, but after seeing him perform (on telly) I can understand that.Last Night I had the second dream this Summer where I was singing. I had to hunt down the previous dream and it was back in June. I forgot a great deal about last night's dream, but I do remember the part where I was singing. I was in a bathroom of all places at some house and I was sitting on the toilet lid singing. The weird part was that I was singing based on these images that were on the toilet paper roll. It was like there were abstract shapes and colors painted on the toilet paper and I sang those and rolled more and more paper slowly from the roll as I sang. There were lots of light colors like yellow and pastel shades. This time it was like either I wasn't in my own body or I wasn't me. There was something very strange about it and I didn't really understand it. Just that it wasn't all me, the singing. Maybe somebody was forcing me to do it, I dunno. But I did sing very beautifully. My unconscious has really fixated on this singing business.
[EDIT]
I still phail at html. Fixed.