Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

[Alatar]

Wow. That was simply breathtaking!

http://en.beijing2008.cn/ceremonies/hea ... 214513609/

[Crucifer]

It was pretty damn amazing... I missed the first 10 minutes or so. I switched on and the first bit I saw was the painting of the picture thing by the dancers.

I have to say, my favourite bit was the boat bit, with all the huge paddles, or possibly the "movable type" bit. How many months of rehearsal must it have taken to get all those people in such perfect sync!?

[Alatar]

I know. That "movable type" bit as you call it was particularly impressive. They had to be working from counts and music cues. I believe I heard 10 months?

[Erunáme]

*loves her Sky+ box*

I caught the lighting of the torch and some of the pyrotechnics at the end (wow!) Will watch it all later with Iavas.

I do have to say watching the Olympics in some place other than my home country is going to be disappointing. You get used to the same commentators and of course the programming being geared towards your own country's atheletes. I'm not all that interested in the UK's atheletes...just doesn't compare when you're from the US.

[Alatar]

Peculiar isn't it? There's 2 things I think about this.

Firstly, when you're only in for a possible 3 or 4 medals (instead of 100 or so) every one really counts.

Secondly, given the population distribution (and this is for all sport not just Olympics) I think each State should count as a separate country! Its not like we tally the number of "European Medals"!

[Griffon64]

Every medal South Africa's gotten felt special to me for that first reason, Alatar! There's always an athlete or two that everybody hopes will get a medal, but the best is the surprise when someone comes in under the radar to claim one. That's why Josiah Thugwane's marathon gold was so awesome in 1996. Penny Heyns won the first medal of the Olympics for South Africa, but Josiah wasn't a virtually sure thing like Penny was.

This year I'll have to follow along on websites, since coverage of South African participants from the US is virtually nil, so I feel your pain, Eru!

[Primula Baggins]

I'm hoping it won't always be this way, and that someday soon we'll be able to see every single event via the web.

State by state would be fun. Oregon's got 13 hopefuls. In the men's 800, the entire team (all 3) train in Eugene. Unfortunately, that final is on in the pre-dawn hours here! (There have also been track and field competitors for other countries who train here or used to—Maria Mutola went to Springfield High!)

I'll be watching the opening ceremony tonight—our first Olympics in HD. It sounds like quite a show.

[Erunáme]

State by state...not sure if that would be so fair either.

I can see how being in for just a few medals would be special, but it really is nice to have interest in a broad spectrum of events.

Prim, NBC delayed showing the opening ceremony until the night in your time zone right? The BBC did not. They showed it live so it started at 12:45pm. Silly to me as many people will miss out. I'm wondering if the BBC will delay any of the big events to an appropriate time zone like NBC does.

[Primula Baggins]

Yes, it's delayed until 8 PM this evening, which means we'll see it 15 hours after it happened. Kind of silly, but then, it's not as if there could be spoilers; you either want to watch this, or you don't.

I gather you've got a DVR, Eru? They're so handy. I expect ours will get quite the workout during the games.

Comcast has actually activated five channels up in the 800s for the duration of the Olympics, so that all the "other" Olympic channels are right next to each other—makes it easier to flip around between events. I guess they're still in their regular positions, too.

[Crucifer]

I usually watch the diving and floor competitions, but not much else, even though Ireland rarely (if ever) has a strong competitor in either of those categories. Why would I only be interested in the competitions with Irish competitors in them? I don't even know what they are this year!

[Primula Baggins]

I love the diving. I still remember Greg Louganis in 1984—he made me realize how abstractly beautiful a perfect human body can be.

Gymnastics can be dramatic. Track and field—I hate to say this, living in Track Town USA, but those events are not very gripping for me. Swimming races are more fun—I don't know why.

With all the coverage over here, my son's hoping to see some real coverage of fencing.

What don't I care about? Rhythmic gymnastics. Weightlifting. Oh, and (shudders convulsively) synchronized swimming.

I am also hoping the "Up Close and Personal" things will be confined to the prime time coverage. It makes me frantic to think we're made to watch some American athlete talk about a past personal tragedy or an inspirational coach, with fuzzy emotional camera work and soppy music, when we could actually be watching athletes compete. Even athletes who aren't American!

Well, there are always those five other channels, I guess.

[River]

This is the only time I ever wish I had a television.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Me too.

[Impenitent]

Hire one for the duration.

[River]

But where would S and I put the fish tank??

We have a friend with a TV. Maybe we can, uh, invite ourselves over.

[Frelga]

Watching it now. Spectacular!

But it did remind me of all those "Chinese tank" jokes.

[Primula Baggins]

That was the most stunningly beautiful live visual spectacle I've ever seen. I was watching with Mr. Prim and his father and brother and our kids and our nephews, and there were times when we were all laughing out of sheer amazement and delight.

But the commentator who said the intensity and precision were also a little intimidating—he was right about that.

[halplm]

eh, I wasn't that impressed.

The opening ceremonies never impress me that much, this one was good, but not particularly better than others.

[Hachimitsu]

(I will say ever since I saw the intro for the Atalanta games 4 years before when they had their preview at the previous summer Olympic location I was extremely underwhelemed. The lack of a theme (or a real mascot) really indicated to to me the lack of thought and creativity in the artistic aspect of the Atlanta games ( I don't have any clue what the slogan was. Definitely no theme what so ever .To me it seemed like 'one sponsor to rule them all'). Ever since then I have always watched opening and closing ceremonies and looked at how the theme was carried through the games. I still remember Barcelona's closing ceremonies, and Italy's winter Olympic theme was the heart because "passion lives here" heck the medals even had a space for the heart of the athletes. )


I was very impressed. I watched it live when it was at 8am (but stupid cbc said it started at 7am and they had stupid special interest stories). I also watched the American coverage of the opening ceremonies also. I loved how the opening ceremonies connected things. I loved the paper theme (I was a little pissed that NBC cut the interstitial vid of the paper making that ended with the scroll. That same scroll unrolled and became the main stage. That vid made it much more significant). The paper theme connected to the paining on the floor that was worked on the whole opening ceremonies, even the podium and the Olympic torch (which as the NBC reporters pointed out was not there 30 minutes previous to the lighting). I loved the footsteps theme with the 29 firework footsteps to the stadium and the athletes footsteps completing the painting. The Printing press was amazing, (CBC showed better footage of it then NBC). All done by people. I do not know how anyone cannot be blown away by that.

The compass wasn't really in it much which I had hoped they did more on. All in all it was an amazing opening ceremony and quite understated. I totally did not expect the direction they went in for the opening ceremonies and was extremely pleased. Absolutely stunning.

[Hachimitsu]

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