Last year we looked at the "UFO" that landed at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics. I'm not exactly sure what the point of it all was, and I'm not sure a lot of the visiting athletes- many of whom come from extremely conservative traditional societies- appreciated it either.
Reach up to the stars for what? The only reason I ask is that that gigantic Olympic torch looks a little more like a prop from the '84 Olympics in some of the angles, where Nikki sings her heart-warming paean to the dissolution of borders and national sovereignty. Check it out around the three-minute mark.
...particularly in light of all the color guard routines and the athleticism and such. Watch both videos together and see if they don't start to blend together in your imagination. They certainly do in mine.
Nikki sings to the Atlantean ruins
Nikki made a go of it as a pop star in the wake of the Olympics, and made a few interesting videos. One of which has an explicit alien/UFO angle, one is set to clips from Disney's Jungle Book, and yet another not only features an explicit Atlantis subplot, but also has her snuggling with a suspiciously Lovecraftian cephalopod.
So that was the in-your-face symbolism. Most people laughed it off and chalked it up to the Hollywood angle, probably not thinking that the announcer framed the ceremony in magical terms, immediately calling to mind a mass-scale version of the Amalantrah Working for those well-versed in their occult history.
But for my money, the closing ceremony from Sydney is a lot more disturbing, and even more tinged with some of the deep, hidden esoteric symbolism we've been trying to decipher around these parts.
The exoteric presentation is your typical Olympic pomp- you have the usual militarism and one-worldism on full display - not to mention the obelisk and the Eternal Flame - all presided over by the precocious little Aryan girl singing "We'll Be One," which offers up praises to unity and submission. Leni Reifenstahl must have been gnashing her dentures with envy.
I'm not sure if little Nikki wrote the lyrics herself or if they're simply translated from the original German, but the syntax throughout is very strange:
When nations join to be a better world,
So let's reach up to the stars,
Together we'll get hope and joy,
To walk the world
And the whole bit where Nikki is raised into the air reminds me a lot of the Mithraic liturgy, if not something a bit more sinister. Make sure you make it to the end- there's an interesting little surprise waiting.
And call me crazy if you like, but the entire display can't help but remind me of this old Alt-Rock classic...
Nikki sings to the Atlantean ruins
After a break from recording that saw her star in an Australian production of The Wizard of Oz, she's back and all grown up and looking and sounding suspiciously like Britney Spears in her brand new single, "Devilicious." Quite a comedown from her Olympic days.
UPDATE 7/3: Thrace points out that just before the three minute mark a piano chimes in with the five-tone alien signal from Close Encounters of the Third Kind! Listen closely starting around 2:45 or so. Not having been to Australia, I can't say I understand the connection with aliens and Oz...oh, wait. Never mind.
Remember that the Olympics were originally created to honor (and to make sacrifices to) the gods of Greece, so why should we surprised if today they still pay tribute to strange, superior creatures in the sky?
Mr. Panda notes in the comments that "Maybe they're like an audition for joining the galactic order. "Look how advanced we are space people."
Which is another way of saying, "we'll make great pets."
And didn't anyone note the weird flyover at the end of the "We'll Be One" video?
