Olympic talk

Hey guys,

Some new things:

1. Where does Minimalism fit into the story of music?
   

2. Whoa. What's with the one-word animal movie names? Pig? Now Lamb?
   

3. Apparently we've been getting less creative. Not sure the reasons specified account for the fact that it has been declining since 1990.  But they likely do contribute to the present day. Sounds like another reason for the 5-hour work day. Be bored more often.
   

4. The Tomorrow War was surprisingly worth it.  One interesting thing: the absurdity of non-soldiers, who have no idea what they're doing, being forced to fight a war.  After that wears thin, you do get an interesting relationship premise.  And even though that ultimately fails to be crafted with more nuance and taste, at least the film puts its money on screen in a bunch of shoot-'em up sequences.  
   
   Put aside its blunt messaging, and Black Widow was worth it too. Mainly for the moments where the family interacts.
    

5. If you're not watching the Olympics, there was this fun bit. 
   
   And 1800 drones.
   
   There's also this ad playing now, which -- aside from making use of a nice soundscape -- is wack... does diversity of thought really need to be equated to diversity in skin color??  Is every skin color category also its own thought category that everyone fits neatly into??
   

6. More on Olympics: I've always watched them. I've always been into athleticism, and I'm working on a few things delving into the stress and psychosis of it. So I've been wondering about all the mental health talk in these Games, and about the slightly lackluster overall USA performance.
   
   I'm an avid swimmer, so I'm paying attention to the swimming events. There have been a pair of relay world records, but no individual world records... which is an anomaly.  This will likely change in the next few days, but chances are it won't come close to the usual tally.
   
   Here are a few reasons, and I don't buy most of them. What makes the most immediate sense to me is the lack of a real audience in the stands. The usually overwhelming magnitude of the Games is getting lost. Morale is lower. What a huge blow to the athletes, and I'm not sure it had to be that way.
   
   It's a larger problem. There's something going on in the global psyche. It's not only that people have had to adapt to tough times. Athletes, especially world-class ones, can bounce back from that. It's that there is a lasting mental shift, a change in priorities, a general sense -- driven into our minds by the media and all the various organizations and committees in various sectors -- that there are more important things than competing in or attending Games, like focusing on ourselves.
   
   Enter Michael Phelps, greatest Olympian. It's interesting that the collective trajectory seems to mimic his personal one. He's on the pulse. 5 years ago, he was in an Under Armour spot that showed true heart and signaled the end of an era. Now he's years into retirement, and his priority is to raise his family and to raise mental health awareness.
   
   This is obviously an important topic for him, as he's been through a lot, and he produced and narrated The Weight of Gold, which was okay.  He's been promoting the topic all over.  Great.  But the outcome of it is both good and bad.
   
   Simone Biles, who's been the best gymnast in the world the past several years, withdrew from the team event and individual all-around, because of her mental health. She says 5 years ago she probably would've pushed through but now she has to be smarter.
   
   This is, in ways, good.  Especially in a sport where not being totally mentally present can lead to a serious fall and injury. You don't want to be psyching yourself out. And Olympians are allowed to withdraw whenever they want. And they do, all the time. This was also the most practical decision for the team event, as it probably prevented some bad USA scores. It meant giving her spots to teammates who had a better chance. 
   
   But where does the line get drawn?  At what point should an athlete tough something out -- which is what champions are made of -- and at what point should they say they can't? Phelps was a top competitor for 15 years, and at the end of the day, he still rose to the challenge. Though he has to commend Simone, and Naomi Osaka, and others for their bravery, I doubt his intention was to always have everyone bail.
   
   Again, Simone can do what she wants... but are we sure about the message we're sending by applauding? If anything, we should be slightly let down, and then move on. Instead, we have a media complex (and tons of people who blindly follow it) turning Simone into their new martyr. And what's bad is the more this attitude is lodged in our minds, the more we carry it into our own day to day: the sense of entitlement, of not owing anyone anything, of needing a participation trophy, of being all equally winners, no matter the outcome. In a world like that, lower morale starts to make sense.

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Chris