Subject: Sydney had a long opening ceremony, too
Author:
Posted on: 2012-07-30 09:30:00 UTC
filled with cringe-worthy celebrations of Australian "culture" such as corrugated iron, lawnmowers, clotheslines and sheep shearing.
Honest, world, there's more to the Land Down Under than that...
Elcalion, Antipodean
Kaitlyn and I have been lucky enough to watch the London Olympics Opening Ceremonies (on the TV, not in the stadium - we're not /that/ lucky) - or at least up to the Teams' Procession, when I had to go to work - and I was impressed by a lot of things. For instance:
The entirety of the first segment, the British History piece, was amazing. I thought Brunel was brilliant (though as Kaitlyn pointed out, it must have taken them ages to come up with a historical character who wouldn't offend anyone), and the transition from the Hobbiton-esque rural scene to the industrial age was brilliantly executed - and utterly captivating. Particularly the dancing men in top hats, loved them - but also all the references (to speak in a fandom way). We spent the whole time going 'Ooh, Suffragettes! Ooh, Beatles!' - usually before the BBC commentators got there.
(And may I just say, they did a wonderful job of shutting up and letting us watch. Much better than the Jubilee, when I think they must have been paid by the word)
Then there was 'Happy and Glorious', with, er, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II parachuting out of a helicopter alongside James Bond. It kind of has to be seen to be believed.
Somewhere around here we had the orchestra playing Chariots of Fire, 'assisted' by Rowan Atkinson - who managed to be funnier without uttering a word than I think he could be talking.
Then there was the Children's Literature & The National Health Service segment, which seems a bit of an odd combination, but worked surprisingly well. J.K. Rowling gave us a lovely reading, and, well, giant Voldemort was driven off by a host of Mary Poppinses. It's like the most surreal crossover ever.
(On a side note: given that the Prime Minister is currently trying to sell off large chunks of the NHS, we wondered how comfortable he felt watching the nation extoll its virtues to the world. Not very, I think)
The closing Four Decades of Music/Television/Technology section seemed a bit crowded, and I didn't recognise much of the TV - or half the music - but the digitally-aided techno-romance story was very well done. Texts and tweets telling the story were added to the footage of the dancing, presumably live, and while the story wasn't exactly complex, it did its job - it caught my attention.
And then they revealed the inventor of the World Wide Web on the stage, which must have been quite a surprise for all the other inventors of the Web. Not sure what was going on there.
But all in all, great fun to watch, and it didn't get boring and repetitive. It does leave me wondering when the extravaganzas for opening ceremonies began, though - I know Beijing 08 had one, but I can't remember hearing about 04 (was that Athens?). Anyone know how long they've been going on? Because I think I want to watch them all.
So did anyone else see it? Or is anyone morally opposed to it? We won't be watching anything from the Olympics themselves - sport, booooring! - but the ceremony was really something.
Thoughts/feelings/reactions?
hS
I'm one of those people who felt they should be morally against any and all patriotism, yet somehow the ceremony didn't offend me. Confuse, yes, but not offend.
On that note it was actually a famousish (can't remember the name) tor (hill) as opposed to a hobbit house ... I think.
Although I still say it's more like Silbury Hill... or that other one which I can't think of the name of.
It was mostly the cottages which made me think Hobbiton, for the record. And the Jolly Rural Folk. Can't you just see it?
hS
filled with cringe-worthy celebrations of Australian "culture" such as corrugated iron, lawnmowers, clotheslines and sheep shearing.
Honest, world, there's more to the Land Down Under than that...
Elcalion, Antipodean
(We haven't quite finished this - we're somewhere in the late 'U's - but near enough)
-I really like the fact that there are four Independant Olympic Athletes - one from South Sudan, three from, um, somewhere else. It's just nice.
-I'm not entirely positive why Hong Kong has its own team; I thought it was now just a part of China, but apparently not.
-'Chinese Taipei' seems to be a very roundabout way of naming Taiwan. I suppose that's politics for you?
-I approve of the Israeli flag-bearer - but mostly because he has his flag shaved onto the side of his head.
-The BBC commentary tended to follow a predictable pattern: one fact about the country, then comments on either an athlete among them, their costume, or something else happening in the stadium. A lot of the ex-colonies got their only fact as when we deigned to let them run themselves (:P).
--With that in mind, I really wanted the USA commentary to go like this:
"So here we have the United States of America, which gained independance from Great Britain in 1776. And over at the hill the Sudanese flag is just being planted, and..."
But it didn't. Humbug.
hS
-The other three are from the Dutch Antilles, which was recently dissolved and why they're participating as independents.
-Hong Kong has its own team because it's still autonomous, but their athletes will be with the rest of the Chinese team in the future.
-The thing is the IOC hasn't recognized Taiwan as Taiwan and won't because it'll put the Chinese into a huff and they won't compete.
Also.
The hats.
My god. The hats.
And the Fijian flag bearer!
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(Oh dear me the hats...)
hS
I thought that the opening ceremony was amazing, though I do agree that the Digital age bit was a bit crowded. I think that they were trying to cram as much pop culture into it as possible. The only thing that could have made it better would be if David Tennant had run with the torch, but if that had happened my inner fangirl would have probably been overwhelmed and died. As for the games themselves, the only sports I'm really paying attention to are archery and fencing.
... the Doctor rescued the torch earlier, not at the Stadium.
(It's really weird to think 'the future' of Fear Her is now our past... especially since the designers clearly got the torches wrong, they looked nothing like the one the Doctor carried!)
hS
I will be watching the gymnastics, as it happens. I like gymnastics. And also ice skating.
-- Kaitlyn, feeling weirdly girly today
This person on tumblr pretty much summed it up.
http://dontletyourteagocold.tumblr.com/post/28159324740/beijing-we-want-lights-and-precision-and-a-good
...but the news channels here ditched the opening ceremony coverage in favour of other stuff.
*Rages*
I did manage to see some of the aforementioned things on the web though- including a Doctor Who reference during Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (listen well at the seven-second mark).
Also, do we have a video of that Voldemort thing? I'd like to have a look at that one...
I was expecting the ceremony to be a big shambles after the taster for it at the end of the last olympics. I was, to say the least, rather pleasantly surprised. I only saw a little of it, but I daresay the use of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' as the soundtrack for the aforementioned (in the first post) part had me very pleased. I have always liked Mike Oldfield's music, and having him live on stage playing possibly his best ever piece, teched-up, was brilliant - especially with J.K.Rowling and representations of various fictional characters there too.
And SeaTurtle, I'd try YouTube. Everything gets there eventually. Enjoy!