Olympics: Opening Ceremonies, Fencing, Beach Volleyball, Men's Gymnastics
I think I had better write down a semi-coherent version of my impressions of the Opening Ceremonies before time erodes my memory of them too much, so here goes:
I am really amazed that over 15,000 people performed seemingly flawlessly over a 4 hour period. One of the commentators kept mentioning "scale and details" and both were astounding.
I liked that most of the segments used 2008 people in the performance.
The drums, the artists as paintbrushes, the printing blocks, the girl flying the kite over the human Birds Nest Stadium, and above all the Tai Chi Master performing, perfectly placed in perfect circles without a single mark, and the dancers on the huge globe absolutely blew me away.
The little kid that walked in with Yao Ming at the front of the Chinese delegation totally stole my heart.
(This is out of order, I know.)The torch lighting deserves separate mention. It was the most amazing torch lighting I've ever seen, and I have watched every single Olympics opening ceremony, both summer and winter, since at least 1968. (I can't remember if I watched in 1964 because I was only 4 years old then.) If you haven't seen it yet, it's on youtube here.
There were three things I was not happy with:
- I understand why the man who created that program left out the Cultural Revolution part of Chinese history, but it was revisionist, and it bothered me, and it should be noted. And when they formed a giant dove, I couldn't help thinking about those "little difficulties" the Chinese helped foment in Korea and Southeast Asia, not to mention Darfur and Tibet. It was jarring. I think most Americans are aware of those things, though. At least, I hope they are. I wish the commentators had made a big deal out of it.
- Except when the American athletes were walking in, George W. Bush was either looking horribly bored and annoyed and fidgeting or talking to Vladimir Putin. It was horrible etiquette and I think goes a long way to show exactly what kind of person he is. I cannot say I was disappointed in him, because I already believe he is a horrible person with no morals or ethical values and no empathy whatsoever for anyone and therefore have very low expectations of him, but I was terribly embarrassed to see him doing that on a television show that was being broadcast to the entire world. I do not include Laura Bush in this. She behaved very well, at least when I saw her on my screen.
- The last is a minor thing, and probably no one but another Olympics junkie would really care, but they didn't show the athletes' and judges' oaths. I always like that such a reminder to be good sportsman is usually part of the ceremony, so that was a disappointment. I think NBC just thought it was getting too late and stopped their broadcast, and that did seem like a really long Opening Ceremony, but I still wish they'd shown it.
Okay, that taken care of, let's move on to the FASHION SHOW!!!
Parade of Nations
This is what I have the most pages of notes about and I'm going to skip going through it country by country because ... I just don't think I can do it.
I loved the cheerleaders, but OMG they must have been tired by the end of that. They kept going, though.
I also loved that the athletes' footprints became part of the painting.
Some overall impressions:
- There was a lot of tan and light gray. A LOT. More than I remember seeing at past Olympics.
- There were also more polo shirts this time, I think.
- Korto was right that white really "pops." And I think either her or Terri's outfits would have fit in very well.
- I loved the American team's outfit. I liked that the men and women wore the same things. There was a tie at the neck which would have bugged me a bit personally if I were wearing them, but it looked like they could loosen them so they were less bothersome. Overall, though, it was very traditional, very crisp and sharp, and oh so very Ralph Lauren. I would have known it was Ralph Lauren even if I hadn't known that from Project Runway.
- Benin gets the award for best hats.
I picked out several teams of athletes that I'd like to go party with, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, New Zealand and Italy. I noticed that the light-heartedness and partyingness (new word!) of the teams seem to increase substantially as we got closer to the end, regardless of the country's political or religious affiliations.
I noticed that only the eastern Europeans (specifically Croatia, Poland, and Serbia) had sleeveless outfits for the ladies.
No offense to any Danes who may be reading this, but I thought they had the most unfortunate uniforms, although the Hungarians came a very close second and Slovenia was possibly third. The delegation from the Netherlands Antilles gets a special mention in this category for looking like they were attending a funeral.
I do not understand why the Panamanian ladies' uniforms included badges over their nipples.
I was disappointed in the French uniforms. They were okay, but they were not nearly as out-there haute couture as the French uniforms usually are. The wide belt thing is pretty "in" but still, I don't think they would have had the winning design on Project Runway, and I usually expect their uniforms to be the type of thing that would. Also, I didn't see matching handbags, and the French usually have matching handbags.
The Russians did have matching handbags. I think they were the only matching handbags I saw.
I thought Kiribati had the best combination of sportswear and traditional dress, so I think I give them the overall Best Uniform award.
I liked the Swedish ladies' tops, with their nod to Chinese style.
I thought the best overall not-really-athletic look went to the Mexican team, with their white suites with nifty ruffly hemlines. I would wear that to work or a nice dinner and feel very fashionable.
My personal favorite note I wrote about the a specific team is: "The Ecuadorans look like bees."
Fencing
I watched Mariel Zagunis and Sada Jacobson while I was at the gym this morning. Go them! And Becca Ward! That was really exciting!
Beach Volleyball
I watched about a third to half of the U.S. v. Latvia match and I kind of hate to admit this, but the Latvians were such cool underdogs that I was cheering for them. I fell asleep and missed that they won. I kind of think the Americans may be a bit over-rated, especially since the Latvians are seeded 23/24. But boy, do those Latvians have heart!
Men's Gymnastics
It was nice to see the guys do as well as they did and that Alexander Artemev kept himself together. I was sad to see the Hamms have to pull out, but I'm also really glad Raj is there. I think he's the main thing keeping this team together. I'm also just really impressed with him in general.
Back to watching. More later.
Edited to change the wording on the transition from artistic portion of the Opening Ceremonies to the Parade of Nations, because it unfortunately appeared that I considered the artistic portion unpleasant, which is very much untrue. Sorry!
I am really amazed that over 15,000 people performed seemingly flawlessly over a 4 hour period. One of the commentators kept mentioning "scale and details" and both were astounding.
I liked that most of the segments used 2008 people in the performance.
The drums, the artists as paintbrushes, the printing blocks, the girl flying the kite over the human Birds Nest Stadium, and above all the Tai Chi Master performing, perfectly placed in perfect circles without a single mark, and the dancers on the huge globe absolutely blew me away.
The little kid that walked in with Yao Ming at the front of the Chinese delegation totally stole my heart.
(This is out of order, I know.)The torch lighting deserves separate mention. It was the most amazing torch lighting I've ever seen, and I have watched every single Olympics opening ceremony, both summer and winter, since at least 1968. (I can't remember if I watched in 1964 because I was only 4 years old then.) If you haven't seen it yet, it's on youtube here.
There were three things I was not happy with:
- I understand why the man who created that program left out the Cultural Revolution part of Chinese history, but it was revisionist, and it bothered me, and it should be noted. And when they formed a giant dove, I couldn't help thinking about those "little difficulties" the Chinese helped foment in Korea and Southeast Asia, not to mention Darfur and Tibet. It was jarring. I think most Americans are aware of those things, though. At least, I hope they are. I wish the commentators had made a big deal out of it.
- Except when the American athletes were walking in, George W. Bush was either looking horribly bored and annoyed and fidgeting or talking to Vladimir Putin. It was horrible etiquette and I think goes a long way to show exactly what kind of person he is. I cannot say I was disappointed in him, because I already believe he is a horrible person with no morals or ethical values and no empathy whatsoever for anyone and therefore have very low expectations of him, but I was terribly embarrassed to see him doing that on a television show that was being broadcast to the entire world. I do not include Laura Bush in this. She behaved very well, at least when I saw her on my screen.
- The last is a minor thing, and probably no one but another Olympics junkie would really care, but they didn't show the athletes' and judges' oaths. I always like that such a reminder to be good sportsman is usually part of the ceremony, so that was a disappointment. I think NBC just thought it was getting too late and stopped their broadcast, and that did seem like a really long Opening Ceremony, but I still wish they'd shown it.
Okay, that taken care of, let's move on to the FASHION SHOW!!!
Parade of Nations
This is what I have the most pages of notes about and I'm going to skip going through it country by country because ... I just don't think I can do it.
I loved the cheerleaders, but OMG they must have been tired by the end of that. They kept going, though.
I also loved that the athletes' footprints became part of the painting.
Some overall impressions:
- There was a lot of tan and light gray. A LOT. More than I remember seeing at past Olympics.
- There were also more polo shirts this time, I think.
- Korto was right that white really "pops." And I think either her or Terri's outfits would have fit in very well.
- I loved the American team's outfit. I liked that the men and women wore the same things. There was a tie at the neck which would have bugged me a bit personally if I were wearing them, but it looked like they could loosen them so they were less bothersome. Overall, though, it was very traditional, very crisp and sharp, and oh so very Ralph Lauren. I would have known it was Ralph Lauren even if I hadn't known that from Project Runway.
- Benin gets the award for best hats.
I picked out several teams of athletes that I'd like to go party with, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, New Zealand and Italy. I noticed that the light-heartedness and partyingness (new word!) of the teams seem to increase substantially as we got closer to the end, regardless of the country's political or religious affiliations.
I noticed that only the eastern Europeans (specifically Croatia, Poland, and Serbia) had sleeveless outfits for the ladies.
No offense to any Danes who may be reading this, but I thought they had the most unfortunate uniforms, although the Hungarians came a very close second and Slovenia was possibly third. The delegation from the Netherlands Antilles gets a special mention in this category for looking like they were attending a funeral.
I do not understand why the Panamanian ladies' uniforms included badges over their nipples.
I was disappointed in the French uniforms. They were okay, but they were not nearly as out-there haute couture as the French uniforms usually are. The wide belt thing is pretty "in" but still, I don't think they would have had the winning design on Project Runway, and I usually expect their uniforms to be the type of thing that would. Also, I didn't see matching handbags, and the French usually have matching handbags.
The Russians did have matching handbags. I think they were the only matching handbags I saw.
I thought Kiribati had the best combination of sportswear and traditional dress, so I think I give them the overall Best Uniform award.
I liked the Swedish ladies' tops, with their nod to Chinese style.
I thought the best overall not-really-athletic look went to the Mexican team, with their white suites with nifty ruffly hemlines. I would wear that to work or a nice dinner and feel very fashionable.
My personal favorite note I wrote about the a specific team is: "The Ecuadorans look like bees."
Fencing
I watched Mariel Zagunis and Sada Jacobson while I was at the gym this morning. Go them! And Becca Ward! That was really exciting!
Beach Volleyball
I watched about a third to half of the U.S. v. Latvia match and I kind of hate to admit this, but the Latvians were such cool underdogs that I was cheering for them. I fell asleep and missed that they won. I kind of think the Americans may be a bit over-rated, especially since the Latvians are seeded 23/24. But boy, do those Latvians have heart!
Men's Gymnastics
It was nice to see the guys do as well as they did and that Alexander Artemev kept himself together. I was sad to see the Hamms have to pull out, but I'm also really glad Raj is there. I think he's the main thing keeping this team together. I'm also just really impressed with him in general.
Back to watching. More later.
Edited to change the wording on the transition from artistic portion of the Opening Ceremonies to the Parade of Nations, because it unfortunately appeared that I considered the artistic portion unpleasant, which is very much untrue. Sorry!