Star Blanded Banner

I can live with poisoned dogs, evicted homeowners, and $55B diverted to Putin's cronies to produce these Olympics. But I can never forgive the insanely poor treatment of the Star Spangled Banner played back at podium ceremonies.

Granted, it's not the greatest tune in the world (my favorite anthem, fwiw, is the one from Vietnam), but there are some harmonic subtleties which can be handled any number of interesting ways. And the Russians' version deliberately paves over every one of those junctures, resulting in utter pablum. The melody's intact, so it gets the job done, but we musicians can easily discern the arranger's smug smirk.

I don't have much sense of patriotism to offend, but this has sure insulted the bejesus out of my musical sensibilities...