London Olympics

[senorsheep]

SHEEP! LET THERE BE SHEEP!

[johnnya24]

So far it's WOW!

Very impressive opening ceremony ... I normally hate these things, but this was subversive, daring, humorous and creative.

Don't wanna give spoilers ... but the sheep barely featured :disappoint:

[johnnya24]

The complete lack of London cliches is welcome ... no Big Ben, no red phone boxes, or black taxis.

No old fogie musicians so far ... no Paul McCartney, no Mike Jagger ... yet! What a welcome relief it would be if we didn't wheel this lot out again.

[johnnya24]

That opening ceremony cannot happen without the assistance of recreational drugs ... just sayin'

Lot's of sequences to piss off the establishment. No attention at all paid to heirs and graces, tradition, royalty, Kings & Queens, empire, stuffiness.

Rural Britain and ordinary folk --> Industrialization & new money --> modern culture & technology

... long sequence about the NHS to piss of the fking tories who are trying to privatize parts of our NHS.

... I thought the 7/7 sequence was brilliant and poignant.

A FK the establishment opening ceremony. Loved it.

All hail Danny Boyle ... bonkers!

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Just before the ceremony started, Frank Turner stood on the grassy hill and sang this song as a final warm up ... which kinda sets the mood for what would follow:



"Come Ye Come Ye to soulless corporate circus tops" Haha ... brilliant.

[Fresno Bob]

That opening ceremony cannot happen without the assistance of recreational drugs ... just sayin'

Lot's of sequences to piss off the establishment. No attention at all paid to heirs and graces, tradition, royalty, Kings & Queens, empire, stuffiness.

Rural Britain and ordinary folk --> Industrialization & new money --> modern culture & technology

... long sequence about the NHS to piss of the fking tories who are trying to privatize parts of our NHS.

... I thought the 7/7 sequence was brilliant and poignant.

A FK the establishment opening ceremony. Loved it.

All hail Danny Boyle ... bonkers!

-----------

Just before the ceremony started, Frank Turner stood on the grassy hill and sang this song as a final warm up ... which kinda sets the mood for what would follow:



"Come Ye Come Ye to soulless corporate circus tops" Haha ... brilliant.

The us feed only played the arctic monkeys beatles cover, and not the first track, and none of the **** buttons. We figure you are saving mick and keef and the spice girls for the closing ceremonies...

[Fresno Bob]

My kids were also calling for dr who to crush the british villians instead of mary poppins

[revo]

at Olympic time, I'm always reminded of this classic Jerry Seinfeld sketch:

[johnnya24]

I didn't see the dress-up part of the OC but the nations walk, the final torch lighting, and the fireworks were unbelievably cool. I think my mouth was agape for several minutes there. The torch lighting was an especially nice touch, with the 200+ torches being lit and combining into one megatorch. Good stuff.

You missed the best part ... although I agree on the lanterns and the torch ... that was inspired.

I'm going to watch it again tomorrow ... lots hidden messages and wonderful touches ... I hope I can find a version without any commentary. The UK commentators by and large kept their mouths shut, but occasionally they would chime in with some irrelevant chatter, probably to justify their job. Apparently the US commentators wouldn't shut up.

Most people absolutely loved it, but the few conservatives who were brave enough to speak out against the tide weren't impressed (they were immediately put in line by the Party whip) ... where were the castles? the jousting knights? the military bands? the upper classes? the Kings and Queens? the British Empire? ... all virtually ignored. They even chucked the Queen out of a Helicopter ... the symbolism being lost in the humor of the moment. Even when things tried to get formal, like when the orchestra started to play Chariots of Fire, Mr Bean turns up to ruin it. Even the movies they used to symbolize modern British culture: Mike Leigh and Ken Loach ... not Lawrence Oliver and David Niven.

Danny Boyle (a Scotsman) charted the advances in British history through the people, not the elite: rural workers --> Industrialists / new money / miners and steel workers --> 20th century music & film and modern youth.

Obviously the opening sequence when the whole scene moved from the rural setting to the scarred industrial landscape was inspired, especially the way they forged the rings ... but for me the two stand out segments were the NHS / Children literature homage, and the London 7/7 tribute (the 7/7 bombings happened the day after London won the games).

I just smiled all the way through the NHS sequence ... the very heart of the biggest global ceremony dedicated to universal health care! Bizarre and brilliant ... and most the performers were NHS employees. At a time when the Tory's are trying to privatize off peripheral parts of our NHS, that was a huge FU to David Cameron. Combining this with a tribute to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, and then Children's literature was a great move ... loved every odd surreal moment of this.

The 7/7 tribute was so poignant, and absolutely spot on. No flag waving or militarism, no vengeance or hatred. Instead of fear and escalation, he created a beautiful segment that emphasized peace and reconciliation.

2 criticisms:

1. Why wasn't Brian Blessed riding one of those angel / dove bicycles? That would have been the icing on the cake.

2. Fking Paul McCartney. God damn this fking guy and Hey fking Jude. He ruined the end for me ... why does every national event have to end with Macca singing Hey Jude ... he's not even a Londoner. They should have got Adele, Muse or Radiohead to close the ceremony ... or if you want someone classical, David Bowie would have been a perfect fit for that ceremony ... dressed as Ziggy Stardust. Or Pink Floyd. Bowie and Adele are both Londoner's.

Anyway ... absolutely bonkers and brilliant ... was one of the best things I've ever seen. Totally didn't expect that. I don't expect the second viewing to be half as good with all the surprise gone, we'll see.

[Fresno Bob]

You missed the best part ... although I agree on the lanterns and the torch ... that was inspired.

I'm going to watch it again tomorrow ... lots hidden messages and wonderful touches ... I hope I can find a version without any commentary. The UK commentators by and large kept their mouths shut, but occasionally they would chime in with some irrelevant chatter, probably to justify their job. Apparently the US commentators wouldn't shut up.

Most people absolutely loved it, but the few conservatives who were brave enough to speak out against the tide weren't impressed (they were immediately put in line by the Party whip) ... where were the castles? the jousting knights? the military bands? the upper classes? the Kings and Queens? the British Empire? ... all virtually ignored. They even chucked the Queen out of a Helicopter ... the symbolism being lost in the humor of the moment. Even when things tried to get formal, like when the orchestra started to play Chariots of Fire, Mr Bean turns up to ruin it. Even the movies they used to symbolize modern British culture: Mike Leigh and Ken Loach ... not Lawrence Oliver and David Niven.

Danny Boyle (a Scotsman) charted the advances in British history through the people, not the elite: rural workers --> Industrialists / new money / miners and steel workers --> 20th century music & film and modern youth.

Obviously the opening sequence when the whole scene moved from the rural setting to the scarred industrial landscape was inspired, especially the way they forged the rings ... but for me the two stand out segments were the NHS / Children literature homage, and the London 7/7 tribute (the 7/7 bombings happened the day after London won the games).

I just smiled all the way through the NHS sequence ... the very heart of the biggest global ceremony dedicated to universal health care! Bizarre and brilliant ... and most the performers were NHS employees. At a time when the Tory's are trying to privatize off peripheral parts of our NHS, that was a huge FU to David Cameron. Combining this with a tribute to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, and then Children's literature was a great move ... loved every odd surreal moment of this.

The 7/7 tribute was so poignant, and absolutely spot on. No flag waving or militarism, no vengeance or hatred. Instead of fear and escalation, he created a beautiful segment that emphasized peace and reconciliation.

2 criticisms:

1. Why wasn't Brian Blessed riding one of those angel / dove bicycles? That would have been the icing on the cake.

2. Fking Paul McCartney. God damn this fking guy and Hey fking Jude. He ruined the end for me ... why does every national event have to end with Macca singing Hey Jude ... he's not even a Londoner. They should have got Adele, Muse or Radiohead to close the ceremony ... or if you want someone classical, David Bowie would have been a perfect fit for that ceremony ... dressed as Ziggy Stardust. Or Pink Floyd. Bowie and Adele are both Londoner's.

Anyway ... absolutely bonkers and brilliant ... was one of the best things I've ever seen. Totally didn't expect that. I don't expect the second viewing to be half as good with all the surprise gone, we'll see.

I kept calling for bowie, or hell, even bob geldof, anyone but sir paul.....liked the pink floyd though

[Mithrandir]

So should anyone outside of Great Britain have understood all of the symbolism?

[johnnya24]

I kept calling for bowie, or hell, even bob geldof, anyone but sir paul.....liked the pink floyd though

I think David Bowie isn't in the best of health these days. Rumors for years are that he will likely never go on a major tour again ... I hope not. I haven't ticked him off yet. I didn't add him to my top 3 I never got to see live, because I still hold out the hope of seeing him perform.

[johnnya24]

So should anyone outside of Great Britain have understood all of the symbolism?

Most of the big stuff was fairly self-evident. There were lot's of little touches and in-jokes, but the overall flow was I think pretty simple. Boyle's vision was to create a vision of modern Britain that did away with all the old vestiges of Empire and Class, and present a vision of the country that represented the real Britain, not the postcard version. In that sense it was an absolute triumph. Industrialization was the greatest thing Britain gave the world ... for good and bad ... which I think they dealt with brilliantly through the top hat wearing 18th century dancing industrialists ... progress, and the price of progress.

The other overall theme was multiculturalism, which is a defining feature of London in particular. If you ride the Tube in London, you will rarely see two people with the same ethnic background sitting next to each other. For instance, London is the 4th or 5th largest French city in the world ... there are permanently 3-400,000 young French people living, working and studying in London. It's probably the most cosmopolitan city in the world.

They forgot to include a young gay couple somewhere in the youth / Internet section ... that would have made this ceremony a legendary global moment. I think they missed an opportunity here ... and I'm sure they seriously thought about it ... so IMO they chickened out on it.

[johnnya24]

[JudeBaldo]

I wish I knew just what hell happened in cycling. Stirring though.

[johnnya24]

I wish I knew just what hell happened in cycling. Stirring though.

The road race? That was a fiasco ... no-one had a clue what the time checks were, or who was in the leading group. One minute the peleton were 26 seconds back and in open road ... then no time checks for 10K and all of a sudden the gap is 1 minute, and no-one has a clue how many or who are up the road. Bradley Wiggins was still leading the chase for Mark Cavendish with under 5K to go ... because he didn't know if the leading group was miles away or round the next corner ... and he has a time-trial on Wednesday. That was a total fiasco. I don't know who was organizing it, but after just watching Le Tour, that was really shambolic.