Olympic Opening Ceremony

[Motorboat Cruiser]

We loved the ceremonies as well. We watched the entire show, all while nibbling on pot stickers, mu shu pork, chow mein and mixed veggies with "beijing soy sauce" (thanks, Trader Joe's!) I tried to find some Tsing Tao beer but was unable to, so we settled for sake and Sapporo.

The entire spectacle was amazing, for all the reasons already stated. Although, I must say, that we couldn't help but being a little unsettled by some of the sections that accentuated the military. Still, those were few and far between, but just enough to notice and comment on. Overall, I though they proved themselves to be gracious and welcoming hosts (all of the political backstory aside.)

The footprints, the lighting of the torch, the moving boxes, the LED technology, and mostly, the happy faces of the athletes from around the world as they anxiously await the opportunity to prove themselves - all of it combined to create a wonderful opening ceremony and I'm glad that we watched it in its entirety.

[Morrigoon]

Oh yeah, every time they showed Bush, he was doing something that indicated he wasn't all that involved in what he was watching. Laura, on the other hand, seemed to be loving it. The watch thing was hilarious.

[lizziebith]

We hadn't intended to watch the ceremonies -- in fact I'd forgotten about them completely! But last night we went out to eat because our place was just too hot to bear cooking, and our restaurant had two tiny tvs in the bar area. While it's not a sports bar, usually a game of some sort is on those tvs, with the sound off. Last night though the bartender turned up the sound, turned OFF the house music, and shouted across the restaurant "it's the Olympics, people!" At first we all laughed nervously, because, well, it was pretty odd for this restaurant...

But as the ceremonies unfolded the restaurant quieted and every head was turned to those small tvs. As folks finished their meals, they started clustering in the bar area to watch (us included). It was such a swanky experience to watch that stunning spectacle with strangers...there was spontaneous applause, some weeping, and marvelous quips were exchanged. The parade of nations was treated as a fashion competition with scores shouted out, which sounds far more disrespectful than it was (we also booed every time they cut to a commercial). We had no intention of staying until the bitter end, but we nearly did! We rushed home right after the US team marched to catch the rest of it.

Wow! I'm so glad I didn't miss this after all -- easily my favorite opening ceremony ever.

(my only complaint -- did anyone see dragons? did I miss dragons? Or could they be saving dragons for the closing ceremonies...)

[Not Afraid]

Any idea who did the animation for the beautiful under sea orchestra commercial (I believe it was for United)?

Speaking of dragons, I liked the cool GE(?) dragon commercial.

Other commercials I liked: Audi with the changing rooms/dogs/Mercedes; Niki film clip series.

Ones I'm already tired of: Metro PCS,; new Coke Can

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Any idea who did the animation for the beautiful under sea orchestra commercial (I believe it was for United)?

Heh, we JUST remembered to look them up. They go by "The Blackheart Gang." 3 South African guys, but one ("Wormstrom") does music so he obviously wasn't involved for United. The are Ree Treweek and James Hendrikz the two that produced it.

Check out The Tale of How. Awesome.

Speaking of dragons, I liked the cool GE(?) dragon commercial.

Yes, totally dug that one.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Check out The Tale of How. Awesome.

Yes, that's the world for it.



When's the movie? (Tale of the DoDo??)






(Oh, and I want to add that the movement of the Printing Blocks was obviously human from the get-go, and the reveal at the end was simply a curtain call and not some kind of surprise twist.)

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Any idea who did the animation for the beautiful under sea orchestra commercial (I believe it was for United)?

No idea, but wasn't that just stunning!?! Loved it. Thanks for bringing it up ... I'd forgotten. (ETA: i see GD researched this already.)

Yep, dragon commercial was good, too. Wonder why it didn't make me wonder why no opening ceremonies dragons???

Not enuf acrobatics either, come to think of it. C'mon guys! China!!

[Kevy Baby]

OK, we are currently watching thanks to TW DVR (which is reminding me how much I HATE this DVR). I will hook up our DVD recorder to the DVR. However, I am concerned how/if it will record to the DVD since it was recorded in HD.

I was amused as they were talking about how one country was coming in and the commentators mentioned that their country only has "about 20,000 more people than the 70,000 people in the stadium." As they were finishing that, another county comes in with a national population of just sixty-something thousand. ETA: Monaco has just 33,000 people: less than half of what was in the stadium.

We were completely stunned by the presentation of the entire opening ceremony. Just absolutely amazing. Although, until somebody can convince me otherwise, I will still believe that the up/down movements of the blocks was mechanized. It was still too perfect an the movements too mechanical to be human-driven. Also, I was watching during the performance and there were times you could see under the "blocks" and there were no feet visible.

Also, I loved the simplistic but powerful concept of having all the athletes walking across the color blocks to colorize the art-piece - LOVED it!

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

What an absolutely wonderful opening ceremony! I only have one meh moment - it involved Sarah Brightman (who looks rather creepy these days and need a trim).

She looked downright creepy in the opening shot - like an android.

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I'm actually looking forward to watching some swimming and diving - and to hear the name Pieter van den Hoogenband said out loud.

Hilarious Kismet moment: Just as I was deleting this part of the quote, they said his name during the opening ceremonies!

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Ones I'm already tired of: Metro PCS,; new Coke Can

I do like the coke commercial where the [whatever those things are] build a plastic drink straw version of the bird's nest.

Originally Posted by lashbear

PS: 630 athletes for China.... there should be a cap.

But based on what? The US has almost as many athletes but only 1/4 the population.

ETA:
Australia has 450 athletes out of 20.6 million people: almost 22 athletes for every million in population
China has 639 athletes out of 1.3 Billion people: less than a half of an athlete for every million in population

[Ghoulish Delight]

Research credit goes to CP.

So, Kevy, you're accusing China, the Olympic committee, and NBC of flat out lying?

There is no doubt in my mind that it was entirely humanly possible. All any individual had to do was know their own routine and timing. It couldn't be more simple. The movements probably were calculated programatically. All you need is a printout of exactly when to go up, when to go down, and how far each time for each individual piece. It's the most simple choreography imaginable. Stick a dude in a box with a metronome programmed to the rhythm of his individual part for a few months and voila, perfectly precise individual component. Repeat a couple thousand times.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Research credit goes to CP.

So, Kevy, you're accusing China, the Olympic committee, and NBC of flat out lying?

I went back and reread CP's post and didn't see anything that says that there was an official statement about this. I believe that at least the flowers at the end of it were done by humans.

To the best of my recollection, I do not recall the announcers saying that "yes, that was human power moving the blocks up and down.

I will happily acknowledge the human achievement of that segment when someone can provide reliable/believable documentation/source that humans moved the blocks up and down.