The closing ceremonies, hell, the entire coverage of the Olympics seemed to be made for a customer that doesn’t exist, who lived back in the pre-Internet days, when the fact that NBC broadcast in color was enough to satiate those stuck in front of screens without clickers, sentenced to watching endless commercials or forced to get up off the couch to switch to one of two other networks.<\/p>\n
We were supposed to have sympathy for NBC, after all, they were losing millions bringing us the games.\u00c2\u00a0 Ain’t that America, where the public is beholden to corporations who pay no tax yet demand sympathy, as their lobbyists keep the government’s hands off of them and they wine and dine luxuriously in private while walking around in public with their pockets turned out.<\/p>\n
Hell, the final hockey game was great theater.\u00c2\u00a0 Because unlike the lame "Marriage Ref" which preempted the remainder of Canada’s party, sports are not scripted.\u00c2\u00a0 We revel in the drama.<\/p>\n
But it was hard to revel in the musical performances closing the games.\u00c2\u00a0 Reminded me of nothing so much as one of those variety shows back in the sixties, Perry Como or some such dreck appealing to an older generation that was one step from the grave mentally, if not physically.<\/p>\n
And then it’s over.\u00c2\u00a0 The IOC bureaucrat declares the games history, and a gray-haired gentleman wearing a hat takes center ice and sings a thirty five year old song that’s more poignant than any of Bob Costas’ commentary, more insightful than any post competition press conference.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Neil Young sang "Long May You Run". That’s the true Olympic spirit.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the thrill of victory so much as the mingling amongst peers.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s almost gone today, in an era where the home country keeps competitors off the course so they can gain an advantage.\u00c2\u00a0 But as years go by, and no one remembers your name, never mind that you won, your memories of the event will remain.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what life is about, experiences. Believe me, Bode and Lindsey are going to be competing on the World Cup circuit momentarily.\u00c2\u00a0 And the rest of us…we’ve got to wait another four years for the Olympics, which seems too long.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s what life is…\u00c2\u00a0 Events that come, then go.\u00c2\u00a0 You must keep on keepin’ on. Holding the Olympics in Vancouver is like AC\/DC playing a closet.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes no sense.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you ever been to Whistler?\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve experienced every one of those conditions there.\u00c2\u00a0 Rain, fog, snow…\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind the snow-less Cypress.<\/p>\n Conventional wisdom is you can’t risk a fuck-up, you’ve got to sing to tape.\u00c2\u00a0 And last night some of the vocalists were so far from the track, they should immediately contact Ashlee Simpson to learn how to fake it.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re fooling nobody.\u00c2\u00a0 The whole thing is bogus.\u00c2\u00a0 The games have devolved into sheer commercialism, with cities looking for a longstanding tourism boost and the IOC as corrupt as the Major League. Sure, they say bribes are history, but do you really think drugs are gone from baseball?\u00c2\u00a0 We live in a world where you smile as you rape and pillage, and when you’re caught, your excuse is everybody else is doing it.<\/p>\n Our morals, our national character is all screwed up.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got Republicans stating that health care reform is taboo, all the while insisting to their constituents that Medicare is untouchable.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the Democrats?\u00c2\u00a0 They used to be the party of the people, now they’re ineffective corporate toys.\u00c2\u00a0 Our system is broken.\u00c2\u00a0 We need a way out.<\/p>\n That’s what artists used to provide.\u00c2\u00a0 A beacon, uncompromised by money and all that corrupts the average citizen.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, a great artist is willing to starve, he sees no other option than to express himself, to seek truth.\u00c2\u00a0 What passes for artistry today is commercialism, playing by the rules in order to get a payoff at the end.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like they moved the music business to Vegas, and everybody wants a chance to push the button on the slot machine.\u00c2\u00a0 And if they lose, they bitch.<\/p>\n We’ve got a country addicted to playing the lottery, too dumb to know that it’s a tax on the poor, that winning ruins your life anyway, since everybody wants a handout and no one ever treats you the same again.<\/p>\n And then we’ve got one lone man.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s still making music long after David Geffen accused him of recording tripe.\u00c2\u00a0 A man who has always followed his instincts.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, after recording "Long May You Run" Neil Young bolted from his scheduled tour with Stephen Stills…it just didn’t feel right.<\/p>\n That’s what an artist does, go with his feelings.<\/p>\n Last night Neil Young sang live.\u00c2\u00a0 He reached my heart like none of the smiling athletes parading by were able to.\u00c2\u00a0 A day later, he’s just about the only thing I remember.<\/p>\n Because real artists are unforgettable.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether they’ve got one hit or dozens.\u00c2\u00a0 They reach down deep and excavate feelings we know but cannot express.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the Left Banke’s "Walk Away Renee" captures teenage wistfulness better than any record today.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, isn’t that the problem, kids are no longer wistful, they’re too busy writing iPhone apps!<\/p>\n Neil Young did it his way.\u00c2\u00a0 And what’s remarkable is when an artist gets it right, their way is our way.<\/p>\n Long may you run.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The closing ceremonies, hell, the entire coverage of the Olympics seemed to be made for a customer that doesn’t exist, who lived back in the pre-Internet days, when the fact that NBC broadcast in color was enough to satiate those stuck in front of screens without clickers, sentenced to watching endless commercials or forced to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-media","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-HB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
We’ve been through<\/span>
Some things together<\/span><\/p>\n
With trunks of memories<\/span>
Still to come<\/span><\/p>\n
We found things to do<\/span>
In stormy weather<\/span>
Long may you run<\/span><\/p>\n