OT: Let the Games Begin! | The Boneyard

OT: Let the Games Begin!

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Settling in to watch the opening ceremonies. Bob Costas doing his hosting thing - though not looking as boyish as he has in the past. Glad to know I am not the only one showing my age ;)

Finally! The Summer Olympics are ready to begin!!
 
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How come the Queen didn't bring any of her corgis? And where or where is Prince Charles?
 

alexrgct

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NBC couldn't get past introducing the opening ceremony before its first dead relative sob story. Yikes.

Opening ceremonies have been badass though. Far prefer to that overblown nonsense in Beijing four years ago.
 

speedoo

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Lauren Jackson is Aussie Flagbearer, looking great.
 

alexrgct

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Can someone please put Bob Costas out to pasture? What a useless, smug piece of crap. His BS is completely counter to the spirit of the Olympics.
 

alexrgct

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Surinamese flag bearer is a swimmer for UConn!
 

MilfordHusky

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DT got some extended face time during one shot of the USA athletes. She was smiling and having a great time - and chewing some gum.
Dee is a bundle of energy. As we know, she cannot stand stationary during the national anthem.
 

Fishy

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NBC couldn't get past introducing the opening ceremony before its first dead relative sob story. Yikes.

Opening ceremonies have been badass though. Far prefer to that overblown nonsense in Beijing four years ago.

Beijing was amazing.

London? Absolutely duck*ing dreadful. Hideously awfully horribly disastrously grotesquely terrible. Anyone involved with the planning of it should be marched into the sea at daybreak, drowned and then shot. And then stabbed. And dragged back onto the beach and set on fire. And then tied to a boulder and dropped back into the sea. And then someone should stand on shore for a year to make sure they don't resurface.

There were exactly two watchable moments...the entrance of the British athletes and Sebastian Coe's welcome.

The rest was a grease fire.

The first nine hours of it was a summer stock Dickens' performance on acid. Then, the James Bond/Queen thing that would have been painful as an SNL skit. And, to finish off the audience and the self-respect of an entire nation, they inserted Mr. Bean into an orchestral performance of the Chariots of Fire theme. The Queen looked like someone peed in her Cheerios. Paul McCartney, for his part, looked a lot like the Queen.

And NBC was dismal.

Lauer and Costas talked the thing to death - my favorite part was when they talked over the band covering the Beatles' tune to let us know that it was a really good cover of a Beatles' tune.

In short, the whole thing sucked monkey nuts.
 

VAMike23

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It's always nice when you don't have to ask a poster for clarification .... :)
 

RadyLady

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"sucked monkey nuts"

Definately a keeper. I will have to file that one away for future use. Don't worry Fishy,I won't take any creative credits...:p
 

zls44

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Fishy is wrong. As usual. What a shock.

Great ceremony, despite NBC's best efforts to ruin the entire thing.
 
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Beijing:
opening-ceremony-na_791230c.jpg


London:
slide_241395_1291707_free.jpg
 

alexrgct

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Beijing was amazing.

London? Absolutely duck*ing dreadful. Hideously awfully horribly disastrously grotesquely terrible. Anyone involved with the planning of it should be marched into the sea at daybreak, drowned and then shot. And then stabbed. And dragged back onto the beach and set on fire. And then tied to a boulder and dropped back into the sea. And then someone should stand on shore for a year to make sure they don't resurface.

There were exactly two watchable moments...the entrance of the British athletes and Sebastian Coe's welcome.

The rest was a grease fire.

The first nine hours of it was a summer stock Dickens' performance on acid. Then, the James Bond/Queen thing that would have been painful as an SNL skit. And, to finish off the audience and the self-respect of an entire nation, they inserted Mr. Bean into an orchestral performance of the Chariots of Fire theme. The Queen looked like someone peed in her Cheerios. Paul McCartney, for his part, looked a lot like the Queen.

And NBC was dismal.

Lauer and Costas talked the thing to death - my favorite part was when they talked over the band covering the Beatles' tune to let us know that it was a really good cover of a Beatles' tune.

In short, the whole thing sucked monkey nuts.
Yawn.

London's ceremony was a celebration of Western values. You know, the good ones. I'll take those over China's self-indulgent celebration of conformity and authoritarianism as virtue.
 

LesMis89

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I had an issue with some of the camera work during the Parade of Nations. While I enjoyed some of the close-ups, it there were too many for me. Rarely got a sense of the spectacle of the thing. It came across as a bit rushed, as if the camera direction never caught up with the speed at which the countries were entering.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the efforts to switch things up a bit. I admit the Beijing's Opening Ceremonies creeped me out a bit. All that synchronization was amazing but they looked like robots.
 
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I wasn't wowed by the opening ceremony, but I stuck with it. I don't like the caldron being so low in the Olympic stadium. It should be high enough to be seen from outside the stadium. That decision is a head scratcher for me.
 

VAMike23

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I wasn't wowed by the opening ceremony, but I stuck with it. I don't like the caldron being so low in the Olympic stadium. It should be high enough to be seen from outside the stadium. That decision is a head scratcher for me.

I read that they had 7 athletes light the torch jointly - nothing can top the year they had an archer light it ....Barcelona?
 

Fishy

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Barcelona had the archer. Beijing had the guy running around the top of the arena's perimeter. Amazing.

London had seven kids in gym clothes.

Had all the imagination and panache of someone lighting a BBQ grill.
 
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The organizing committee made the calculation that they couldn't compete with the Beijing spectacle in kind, so they took the only avenue left to them. Their approach was similar to what Canada produced for the Winter Olympics...the scale was modest, and the content had some strong moments...overall, I enjoyed it!

The best part, though, is watching the faces of the athletes...their excitement is what gets me going...in spite of NBC/Costas!
 

Icebear

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I read that they had 7 athletes light the torch jointly - nothing can top the year they had an archer light it ....Barcelona?
Those were both really cool.
 
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