London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
 

So....what did people think?

I have to admit, having spent the last few weeks convinced that we were about to present the last word in naff, I rather liked it.

Yea Brits... Well Done

My wife and I watched the Opening Ceremonies in between all the
TV commercials that NBC inserted, and even then we enjoyed it.

Before it started our neighbors were talking about whether
anyone could top the Openings that the Chinese put on.
Each of us felt there was no way to top what they did.

But I think by changing the theme direction, it set up a whole
different measuring stick, and it came off very well.

I was impressed by the number of actors, their costumes, and how well organized it was.
And to give such a salute to the country's Health Services
... now that was special, and the kids with their Sisters were a lot of fun.

Those dancers were actual NHS staff as well :)

I'm still slightly stunned that Her Maj. was game for the Bond skit. And with her corgis too!

I totally loved the pastoral scene giving way to the industrial revolution. I thought that really captured how we as the nation we currently are came about. It's such a fundamental part of us, good and bad. The horrors of displacement, enclosure and city slums and the ancient history it overlays.

Most of all I loved its irreverence. If anything encapsulates British culture it is that.

I watched live on streaming BBC, without commercials, and thought it was well done. I was amazed at the props, in variety and size. The Bond/Queen bit was very clever, and although I'm not a fan, Mr Bean was good too.

Oh, and very clever torch. :thumb:

It was well done.:thumb:

I thought it was well done to

How are you watching it? Everytime I try to see something on BBC I get the "content not available in your area" :(

I've been messing around with proxy servers but they don't seem to make a difference.

I loved it!

Dang, no women home so I was able to opt out this time. I've been pretty gun shy since Albertville.

I was so happy with it.
The boy did good.

I want to watch it all over again from multiple angles. I saw the Jarrow Marchers in a still photo; missed them on the night. What else did I miss?!

I loved the creepy child stalky stuff.
I loved Kenny B's smug expression (we had him down as Dickens, Brunel or Blake when he first turned up. I was right with Brunel, but shaky on identifying him as Branagh)

Loved the whole musical montage.
When Born Slippy came on I said, "Oh Danny, you didn't!" and was rewarded by clips from Trainspotting. This impressed the 'rents who believed they had never heard of him.

Did you read about the stupid Tory bigot who moaned it was leftie multicultural crap? Apparently "all these rappers" (WTF? What was HE watching? MTV?) really narked him about multiculturalism. Yup. Because Dizzee Rascal with his E3 jacket was all about being foreign and nothing to do with being a proud Bow-born Brit. Oh sorry, he's BLACK. That makes his appearance about political correctness.

He also said children and nurses were bouncing on beds for 20 minutes (the leftie bit I guess).
Again, no idea what he was watching. The segment focused on children's literature.
Okay maybe it was leftie. After all it wasn't about nurses letting people die of dehydration or leaving people in corridors. NB the last two experiences I have had of NHS hospitals have been poor to exceptionally poor. If I can enjoy that section I think anyone should be able to. Choir of deaf children? Tears.

So anyway. Sat down and watched it en famille. Apart from Mum getting on her high horse about Brunel being demonised (?) we all enjoyed it. Wonderful. And so much less abstract that most I remember seeing. No-one riding around on a giant prawn. And just a beautiful spectacle.

I really enjoyed it. Esp. the rock and roll!

On to more serious matters: there is a US female volleyball player with the very unfortunate name of Destinee Hooker.

Very unfortunate indeed. Good thing she doesn't play basketball for Rutgers!

She is a fabulous player, but yeah someone needs to talk to her Mom.

I don't follow the sport... is she Jewish?

Wrong side of the counter pawn star. :) Wait, is that racist?

http://tvpc.com/Channel.php?ChannelID=3
Had to install their plug-in, carefully declining a shit load of toolbars and crap, but it worked. Now when I go to the bookmark I get a 30 second commercial but then it's cool. You can full screen it too.

You are the man Bruce.

Thanks Bruce. Just loaded it and BBC is so much better than NBC.

The Torches
 

Here's a wonderful story about one of the torchbearers using her torch to make people happy after her run.

Much more at the link.

We had two torchbearers come to our school for our Olympics Closing Ceremony (we had 2 weeks of Olympics themed lessons and sports before the end of term".

They both spoke about the torch, why they'd been nominated, how they felt - it was extremely moving. The younger children oohed and aahed at the bling but the adults were quite choked up.

The female torchbearer had to rush off to another appointment, but the male stayed in the playground afterwards, speaking to staff, parents, children and having photos taken. I asked Tiger if he wanted one, but he was completely oblivious. I just wish I'd had one taken of myself, but it seemed mean to jump in in from of all the children and parents, and too awkward to wait for them all to disperse!

The torch is exciting. I don't remember if it was for Atlanta or Salt Lake City, but the torch came a block from our apartment, so we walked down to watch it go by. It was really cool to see.

My youngest niece, Sophie, was one of the On the Spot reporters for the local radio station when it came through our town. It actually came down past the village too, and through the crossroads: visible from my brother's house.

I was devastated not to get time off to watch the torch come through Aylesbury.
My home town. The place I grew up and came back to. The Olympic Torch.
And I've been a huge Olympics fan since the LA Games.

But there was a blanket ban on staff time off (excepting illness or family emergency of course, and I respect my job far too much to fake it).

But wouldn't you know, I got a better deal in the end.
Class 2 - my class next year - had the live streaming. They tried to get it to work in the Hall, but something always goes wrong down there - on Cine Night, during Music Assembly, during play rehearsals. Sigh. Anyway, the sainted Mrs I, who doesn't throw her hands up and say things are broken - managed it in her classroom. So we piled all our children into hers.

And then the rest of the school :)
Even with TAs doing end-of-term jobs I still think we had 1 adult to 8 children!

Anyway, instead of watching the torch walk, stroll, run or dance past once, I saw the best part of 2 hours of it. And got to chopse about Mars to the teacher who I will be working with in September. I rarely get to talk to her because she is KS2 and therefore has different break and lunchtimes. I was really encouraged by the questions she asked. Also Mrs B (works with a girl with Downs Syndrome) says she is very appreciative of the knowledge LSAs bring with them.

Anyway, I will remember the day the Torch came fondly, as it was the birthday of my Great Nephews. And I saw the Torch come through my own town.

Brilliant, thanks Bruce!

How charmingly British it all was. The American TV commentators were ... morons. And lame.

I recognized Glastonbury Tor for what it is, and about cried (did you too, els?) when they ripped the tree of life out by the roots to begin the industrial revolution section. The set changes were pretty impressive.

I am entirely disappointed that no one identified the Child-Catcher from Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang during the salute to the NHS. And what is with Tubular Bells as the music to that bit? Speaking of odd music choices, of all the OMD out there, they pick Enola Gay? Really? And they should have been kinder about the costume choices ... some of those girls in the harlequin suits will be quite regretful of that video! Did think the Rowan Atkinson bit was funny, but the he really seems only to tell one joke. Did like HM's entrance, though, even it he isn't my Bond. And there was insufficient Beatles.

I think that will do it for comments at this point.

Our commentators identified the child-catcher, don't you worry Wolf.
'Cept the silly woman identified him as "the character which haunted all our nightmares as children"

Errr - no. Watched the film as far as the child-catcher about 10 years ago. A bit too old by then. Still haven't managed to make it past Benny Hill... The only childhood character to feature in my nightmares was Heidi. And they were really fever dreams when I had mumps; Mum had been reading me the story.

During the opening ceremony, Mum went to the loo, came back and asked what had happened to the tree.
"Kenneth Branagh killed it" I said.

Re Mr Bean, I read an American reviewer who said they switched off after that segment as British potty humor is not as appreciated as we think it is (or something like that). A fart. One fart in a couple of hours of magic. And not even a real fart! A machine-generated-mistake! I am no fan of Mr Bean but apparently I am a potty humourist.

I was also puzzled by the overseas reviewers concern about "in-jokes". So I watched it again. Yes all of it (except the parade of athletes which doesn't count). Yes, I suppose there were some Brit-centric jokes. But nothing very obscure. Nothing intentional I suspect. I've learned from being here how easy it is to be surprised by an international break in communication. But I am willing to concede. After all the Shipping Forecast is not a joke as such, but it's pretty insular.

I swear I heard the Tardis once or twice. But no-one I've spoken to has backed me up. Perhaps the Doctor really was in my garden with the hedgehogs and I just carried on regardless.

I loved the Mr. Bean bit. I think to single out the potty joke either as hilarious or offensive indicates some deep seated issues. :blush:

Seriously, his whole bit was genius and the potty bit was far from the weakest link.

I thought it was neat how they built that hill in the middle of the stadium and grew weeds on it that looked like they were real and in need of mowing.

And the tree rising out of the ground-- a clear reference to Spinal Tap

Yep, definite tardis noise. The Gallifrey base people confirm :p

@ Wolf: Atkinson has a much greater range than one joke. But his Mr Bean type character is very popular.

Oh I back that up completely.
When he appeared, Mum & Dad were "Oh! Mr Bean!"
Because of his apparel I immediately thought "Johnny English". I dislike both characters.
It was so lovely to see a split second from The Blackadder in the TV montage.

One of our comedy channels (Gold? Dave?) is showing one of his few stand-up shows. They're using the clip where he is the Devil welcoming people to Hell. Far more to my taste. I also adored his unrepentant Headmaster, which I had on audio tape. "Stiff as a board and bright green... and beginning to smell!" Sadly, like some Spitting Image lines, it's in my head as a great quote but rarely gets used. I shall be chaste and virginal* until the comedy references I drop are picked up by my true love.

Glad I wasn't going mad re the Tradis though :)










* Apparently it seals up after a while.

I actually thought his performance was more Johnny English than Mr Bean. Facial expressions less exaggerated and so on.

I am not a fan of Mr Bean. Johnny English I quite like but wouldn't make a special effort to see.

Much prefer his other work. Bean and English both came long after he'd made his name here. So that's not how most people my age think of him at all.

Actually, though, he's most well known to our generation for Blackadder.

And to stop hijacking my own thread...:p

Back to that opening ceremony. For those that watched it: did you notice that the USA team got almost as big a cheer from the crowd as the home team did?

I just figured it was NBC hyping their own coverage :rolleyes:

How do you mean?

Just being sarcastic towards NBC.

Too many commercials, too much coverage of "beach volleyball", completely provencial towards US, etc.
and if you want to watch anything other than the NBC TV coverage,
they want your name, address, phone, ISP account number, along
with the sex, height, and weight of your 1st-born infant.

Ahh. yes, I hear they've been total arses about the whole thing.

Really unbelievable how they make content unavailable. I don't have cable tv in my area and am completely out in the cold. Can't make a commercial driven feed available? NBC is trapped in the last century. I love how they intro events they already know the results of eliminating the agony of defeat angle to prove expertise and lower expectations. Their fascination with beach volleyball to the exclusion of everything else is really nuts. That BBC 1 feed has been a godsend. Breaking away from the event for a human interest piece is just silly. Do that when you have no content.

I've worked with NBC folks a number of times. They are un-creative knuckleheads.

Can someone post a link to the BBC feed? I downloaded Bruce's plugin but can't seem to actually find the stream.

It works for me just by clicking on the link in xoB's post here

Can NBC suck any more? They aren't going to broadcast the gold medal match Between the US and Japan in women's soccer tomorrow.

I doubt BBC1 will show it. There must be some channel we can stream to see it.

They can suck more by finding an excuse to show beach volleyball instead of soccer. I saw a chunk of US v Canada Women's soccer while sitting in the dentists office, very impressive play on both sides.

It will be on NBC Sports Network... does anyone actually have that?

We don't.

:(

I never even heard of the NBC Sports Network.

I read somewhere that 80 million people have that channel, and nobody watches it, so NBC execs made a decision to put all the Olympic soccer on that channel to try to turn it into the default soccer channel and build up an audience for it that way. MBA thinking.

Last night I turned the TV off.

Same here.

NBC bought Versus, and renamed it NBC Sports Network.
Thats where all the hockey games USED TO BE. Grrrrr
Nope NBC couldn't possibly suck anymore than they already do.