I tried to watch it live, or as live as NBC was going to make it, which I think was a 6 hour delay or something. Not even five minutes in I set the DVR to record it and changed the channel. Turn of #1: the narrators at the beginning of the program with in and out British accents, trying to pump up the Olympics. It was awful and I decided I would just wait it out and watch when I could fast forward past the boring parts.
Cue Saturday evening. I plop my self down on the couch, remote in hand, finger poised over the fast forward button, and I have have to fast forward through the first fifteen minutes or so. The queen making James Bond wait before climbing into a helicopter and then parachuting from the helicopter into the stadium was kind of cool. She didn't look too happy to be there otherwise. Of course she's getting old, it was probably kind of chilly, as the commenters kept reminding us, and it was late. Plus all she ever does when she goes out in public is smile and wave, so if I was her, I'd look grouchy too.
Fast forward through commercials.
People walking around with sheep and cows.
Commercials.
Now there are smoke stacks coming out of the ground while a thousand miserable looking people tear up the grass and pull levers and look miserable. Meanwhile 5 guys in top hats walk around waving their hands in the air. I think they're dancing.
Commercials.
Kids in beds while doctors and nurses (real sick kids, and real doctors and nurses as the commentors made sure to tell us five times) dance around while lights on the beds spell NHS. As an American with certain political leanings, I'm jealous.
Commercials.
The kids fall asleep, there's what I think are nightmares. A REALLY creepy Queen of Hearts rises out of a bed. It's far creepier than the giant Voldemort. Then twenty Mary Poppins' fly in and kind of wave their umbrellas at Voldemort and vanquish him. I say:
I mean, if you're going to take the time to have Mary Poppins fight Voldemort, you could at least have lasers shoot out of her umbrella.
Commercials.
Mr. Bean. Chariots of Fire. That is all.
Commercials.
Something about a girl losing her phone and a guy finds it. Lots of dancing. My question is the guy finds her by calling her on a cell phone. Who's phone is she on? Did he just call one of her contacts who just happened to be with her at the giant 50 year British music dance-off?
Commercials.
Interviews with gymnasts. Fast forward.
Commercials.
Parade of Nations! We make it halfway through the Bs before more commercials.
As the Parade goes on, more and more commercials get squeezed in. Two countries go by, commercials. Three more countries, commercials. My finger and the fast forward button get acquainted real quick.
Finally we get to the United States and the cameras linger on the athletes and Uzbekistan, and other U countries get ignored.
Commercials.
Finally the host country, Great Britain, which caused me to wonder "Do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland not have their own Olympic teams?" I don't know enough about how the whole Great Britain, United Kingdom, Commonwealth thing works, (in fact all I know of modern Britain comes from Doctor Who), but if Torchwood: Miracle Day taught me anything, you will still get punched in the face if you call a Welsh woman English.
Announcement that Sir Paul McCartney will be singing. I hit stop on the remote and when the tv asks if I want to delete the program, I hit yes.
And that is what I got out of the London Olympics Opening Ceremony.
BTW: WTF is these things supposed to be?
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all apart of Great Britain so they fall under the Great Britain flag. The Republic of Ireland have their own flag as they're not apart of Great Britain.
ReplyDeleteThere were no commericals when it was shown in Britain and each country got equal air time, so it must have been altered for American viewing. It wasn't as bad as you're making out lol
I hope I didn't make it sound like I hated it. It was just that coverage we got in the US distracted from the spectacle. I think if we had fewer commercials and less yapping from the commentators it would have been far more enjoyable for me.
DeleteThanks for the info on Great Britain. I understand that they are all separate countries joined in some way, but to my American mind it's hard to reconcile.
Hello *waves* so nice to meet you :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that the ceremony was... not as good as I hoped. But I do enjoy watching the Olympics ;)
I really think all the commercials distracted from the show.
DeleteI agree Paul McCartney was a bit of a let down but you should have waited to see the cauldron being lit! It did drag on a bit but was worth it in the end. It's probably on You Tube somewhere... ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how long the show was in it's original form, but it was about 4 1/2 hours on NBC, the network that covers the Olympics in the States. I didn't even think about seeing the cauldron being lit. I thought Paul McCartney was the end of the show and I was tired of commercials.
DeletePiaget divided the course of conceptual development in the Introduction to Objectivist
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