They turned out better than I expected. Visually stunning, and far easier to watch than some of the more esoteric offerings of the past
( Read more... )
I blew most of it off and watched Hellboy, which was good but poorly edited. I should have watched the Olympic opening ceremonies, it's such a global big deal and a moment for peace among nations. (I don't get good NBC reception, that's my excuse.)
i'm watching on the downstairs tvhenareAugust 9 2008, 05:50:29 UTC
which isn't connected to satellite ... HD really does wring out more from a poor signal--the analog 11 is horrendous, and the HD 11 has been spectacular, with only two or three momentary breaks in the signal over the past few hours.
Re: i'm watching on the downstairs tvvasilatosAugust 9 2008, 21:07:14 UTC
Totally. We have one tv connected to a converter box, and the olympics are running pretty much continuously on that one. Me, I have analog (connected to a two-antenna switch) so NBC is only somewhat watchable (but not olympic watchable) until and unless I either hook up my converter (and lose channel 4 for some reason) or buy a new TV and antenna (currently out of stock everywhere). Hmph.
many of the ads shown here were locally-oriented ... comcast bought a lot of time.
about halfway through they managed to show the ideographs for each country either on the jumbotron or on the handheld placards which preceded each flagbearer.
Yeah. I had an issue with the ad, too - it just felt like poor sportsmanship. Running a political ad isn't an issue to me for the network; if the campaign wants to pony up, they should feel free (although how the hell they found open airtime to purchase escapes me) - but running an attack ad is..well, it's unsportsmanlike. And therefore really counterproductive.
It was the smaller stuff during the opening ceremonies that blew my mind - the lady walking on the huge piece of cloth held aloft by 2008 people, the way folks could run around that globe completely parallel to the floor during Zombie Sarah Brightman's song...the gargantuan LED screen was cool, but...felt wasteful. The rest of it was awesomeness incarnate.
I had just seen an episode of _Jeremiah_ where one of the protagonists makes a speech about how hate groups never last because they neverhave any answers, never provide anything positive. When I saw the McCain ad which offered no answers and had just an ill-thought-out attack on Obama, I had to laugh.
The use of massive manpower for the ceremonies squicked me just a little bit (the whole "work the peasants for the benefit of the lords" idea), but it was still well-executed. Personally, I really liked the huge LED screen. Not wasteful, but a really neat proof-of-concept.
I was pretty annoyed with NBC cutting into the spectacular pageant stuff with commercials, skipping big chunks of the spectacle, and then covering the Parade of Nations thoroughly with clueless-Amerikan commentary. But maybe it is on the net somewhere. No doubt...
Alas, that's NBC. Last Olympics, we caught a lot of coverage from a Canadian station we were picking up which had far more coverage with far fewer interruptions and maudlin heroic-athlete stories.
Changing the subject, to your user photo I guess, Number One Son was in a rugby tournament here yesterday that had teams from all over, including Texas. He was in a kind of pick-up team of the Eau Claire team (they didn't all come down) with the UW-Whitewater team (which is closer) and they played Stanford, and lost by only two points. I was surprised people would travel from all over like that, to little old Madison, but I guess they do have a couple good fields here, and the weather in these parts is certainly more moderate than further south.
I have started looking at the online Olympic coverage, but it's hard to sort through it all. The first Chinese gold medal went to a woman weightlifter! go girlfriend!
Beach volleyball is a fucking farce. For this we watch the players sit around between sets, and photo ops with their big fan the Resident, wouldn't you know, but for the men's gymnastics, doing things never before seen, oh no, cut to commercial. And rugby isn't even in the Olympics? wtf?
Comments 13
Reply
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
about halfway through they managed to show the ideographs for each country either on the jumbotron or on the handheld placards which preceded each flagbearer.
Reply
Reply
It was the smaller stuff during the opening ceremonies that blew my mind - the lady walking on the huge piece of cloth held aloft by 2008 people, the way folks could run around that globe completely parallel to the floor during Zombie Sarah Brightman's song...the gargantuan LED screen was cool, but...felt wasteful. The rest of it was awesomeness incarnate.
Reply
The use of massive manpower for the ceremonies squicked me just a little bit (the whole "work the peasants for the benefit of the lords" idea), but it was still well-executed. Personally, I really liked the huge LED screen. Not wasteful, but a really neat proof-of-concept.
Reply
Reply
Reply
I have started looking at the online Olympic coverage, but it's hard to sort through it all. The first Chinese gold medal went to a woman weightlifter! go girlfriend!
Beach volleyball is a fucking farce. For this we watch the players sit around between sets, and photo ops with their big fan the Resident, wouldn't you know, but for the men's gymnastics, doing things never before seen, oh no, cut to commercial. And rugby isn't even in the Olympics? wtf?
And I want to see the horsies!
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment