Dear God, these Opening Ceremonies are boring -- and full of spin narration

China is a totalitarian society, gang, and the goosestepping soldiers taking the flag from the kids was CREEPY, not full of pride.

Okay, these are pretty, but BORING. Thank goodness the Parade of Nations is starting in a minute.

the athletic events are no better than the individual sports annual championship events. For instance, you win the olympic cycling road race. That is not much when compared to the world championship cycling race held annually in Europe. Or the Tour de France. And rhythmic gymnastics? Do we need more subjectively judged and media controlled/staged drama?

not so much the toy soldier part, but the LCD screen and the drummers, human painters, the globe with dancers...I thought it was incredible.

The grins on the drummers was kind of irritating. Personally, I expect drummers to look and act like warriors. The grins just looked fake.

And, I usually really like the opening ceremonies.

I wish they would have had Aerosmith and Run DMC

Still, I see yours.

Ahhh...ignore.

Followed by his stupid smirk.

Oh, and his earlier watch glancing was just classic. He is clearly bored as hell to be there, and personally I don't think heads of state should be there, anyway. At least he got to sit next to his friend Putie Poot.

the rest of the Olympics.

I cannot remember when was the last time I was able to muster any enthusiasm for the Olympics. Well over 30 years ago, I'd guess.

Redstone

And I enjoy watching some of the sports.

I have a hard time getting into the Olympics this year. China doesn't deserve them, and the announcers were pro-China propaganda.

running a week worth of shows from China (as is the Travel Channel).

Redstone

and you have to do that suspended belief thingy...

It's beautiful.

:hug:

jaw-dropping

makes me wish I had a big screen hi-def set

it's spectacular, and leaps and bounds better than the normal run of the mill bullshit we're fed nightly

imho

There's no story behind it.

I've got the big screen hi-def, and I couldn't wait for the march of nations to start.

Who are the two idiots announcing the parade of nations? Is that Costas? He really made a poor impression when he ripped Georgia for breaking the "Olympics ceasefire". Where has he been the last 6 years?

I saw Laura too, I wonder who is working her remote control? Smirky was of course, smirking.

And you pretty much summed it up.

and honestly I think this was the best opening ceremony I've seen. Usually there are too many cheesy factors and in this one I only thought it was cheesy when the guys were running around in green lit-up suits. The rest was pretty jaw-dropping.

The parade of nations has been really cool. My daughter has greatly enjoyed hearing about all the different nations and seeing the different costumes.

It's much better than the stupid hoe-down at Salt Lake City! Yee-haa!

The 500' LCD mat changing images is really cool. The ancient imagary is cool, too. IMO, the soldiers were the only jarring, out of place image of the night so far. I wish our commentators would shut up, tho. A lot of their comments were obvious approved by the Chinese government.

The drumming would have been better without the stupid smiles.

My wife was fuming over Costas saying the "tai chi" (it was kung fu) looked like Karate. She's pretty serious about her karate.

I'd watch that on PPV

He's simply more enthusiastic about the Olympics than anyone else on the major networks. Every time one is about to end, Winter or Summer, he genuinely emphasizes he can't wait for the next to begin.

I'm watching the start of the coverage now, on the West Coast. I was impressed that Lampley was allowed to open but now they've predictably handed off to that twerp Costas. I'll never forgive him for mocking the Olympics in '88 when he felt slighted by asked to host the late night coverage. He have baseball scores every night while making sarcastic comments like, "I know you can't wait to get back to the women's volleyball."

Regardless, any Olympics is a treat. I won't be sleeping much the next two weeks, based on the schedule.

And BTW, NBC is asinine for limiting its online video for Macs to the Intel machines.

But for the most part, I enjoyed the ceremony. Big difference though, I watched it on the CBC. They tend not to comment as much as American broadcasters. They introduce things, give a few facts etc. They don't go on and on.

I remember watching a funeral on a US channel. There was a "moment of silece" and the announcer talked through most of it. "We are now having a moment of silence. This is done to allow time to reflect upon the life of X. Recalling..." Some things don't need to be expained.

During the cool drumming thing tonight, the commentators would suddenly jump in to say things and I was like "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

NBC just annoyed the hell out of my wife and I. The announcers were just horrific. She compared it to watching Westminster Kennel Club Dog show on TV. The announcing style was exactly the same.

...that the CBC does much better coverage. Much more straightforward with far fewer commercials.

I thought they were pretty and interesting.

But can't disagree on the "China is a totalitarian society, gang ..."

Particularly the first stage of the pageantry. It featured great colors and not too complicated, easy focus in one area. I thought it declined a bit once they had thousands of people involved, other than the awesome pop-up squares when the people were concealed.

This is one of the more memorable Opening Ceremonies. But it was strange how informal and dispersed the athletes were during the parade of nations. Normally they march somewhat in row fashion then the Closing Ceremony is anything goes.

Once the Olympics arrive it's laughable how they are dismissed as overrated, or a source for protest. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not among that group.

Oh yeah, NBC's expert on China was very impressive. He helped keep Costas relatively quiet until the parade of nations.

The whole concept disturbs me.

As a result of the Olympics.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18379

They'll want to send the fencing back for the RNC, so don't you go damaging it!

was Matt Lauer's inane ramblings. No wonder he's only only morning infotainment. :eyes:

No matter how *spectacular* they are

Is Led Zeppelin on stage with Eric Clapton, the remaining Beatles, Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck? With the White Stripes and Beck Hansen flanking them? No? Bo-ring!

was boring - am I'm a pagan who thought the idea of invoking the Old Gods was pretty cool. But as one poster up-thread mentioned, the smiling drummers bothered me too (although I want one of those drums). The sugary sweet duet with Sarah Brightman (please, Sarah, do something with that hair - a chignon or something), the piano silliness, that was stuff that could have been cut. Of course, I liked how the Chinese history portion skipped from the Tang dynasty to 1978. Left a little out there, eh?

I thought it was a stunning achievement.

My mind was completely blown by the grand scale and minute precision.