Olympics opening ceremonies are always a bit odd. There's always some theme that they are supposedly following, but it usually comes across like a psychedelic dream performed by Cirque de Soleil. Not a big fan of the dancing cows or the ladies who wore the mountain range dresses. I'm already tired of hearing about Bode and Michelle Kwan - I think we have a few other athletes whom we can focus the cameras on. And what was with the American 1980s soundtrack? YMCA??
Ah, but there were so many good things about this opening event...the masses that made up the ski jumper in flight...the Spiderman acrobats on wire who formed a dove...the lighting of the flame. The parade of nations, although very long, is always cool. I love seeing the warm climate countries who send one delegate over - Kenya, the Bahamas, Brazil. All of the athletes seem so authentically proud and excited, and I continue to be amazed at the collection of the world in one place. Where else does North and South Korea march together under one banner? The evening ended on a very high note, with Pavarotti singing one of the most beautiful songs ever, "Nessun Dorma" from Puccinii's Turandot.An unexpected plus of the opening ceremonies was the commercials. In my opinion, far better than the much-hyped Superbowl collection!
4 comments:
Nathan commented about the commercials being better than the super bowl ones...
I really want to visit Italy, it is high on my list of international travel.
We laughed at the 80's disco music. There are so many beautiful Italian songs they could have used
Hey we have one gold already!
"...but it usually comes across like a psychedelic dream performed by Cirque de Soleil."
OH no. Cirque de Soleil is cool. This is more like the Oompa Loompas trying to perform in Cirque de Soleil.
We also had fun watching the countries like Albania, Algeria, Ethiopia, and other countries (without mountains) put 1 or 2 people in the games. It was funny that they train and go to school in other countries and then represent their native country in a sport they do not have at home!
One of the funny things about the Olympics is that it makes people fans of sports that they never knew existed (or at least never cared about before). I found myself mesmerized by the luge, men's snowboarding (you'd think there would be some rule against showing your underwear on international television), and men's speed skating. Now, if I do the same for curling, someone must stop me.
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