I saw that this morning- and, as much as the spectacle of China was a great spectacle (see above post) that article did a great job of synthesizing all the ideas of in last night's opening.
I want to take this opportunity to say how much I respect our British cousins, both for the ideas expressed in the opening ceremony, and the depth of character and spirit that prompted that exhibition. You should be proud of yourselves.
Lotche is obviously the new swimming bad ass...he completely smoked everyone...but seeing that interview with him in his fucking closet and learnIng he owns a blinged-out mouth grill makes it hard to like him...seems like he has a whole lot of dipshit in him.
But that doesn't matter I guess...he is going to murder everyone in the pool.
Lotche is obviously the new swimming bad ass...he completely smoked everyone...
Except for the 16 yr old Chinese girl:
Ye Shiwen won the 400m IM gold in a world record time of 4min 28.43sec. It was her final 100m of freestyle, in which she recorded a split time of 58.68sec, that aroused Leonard's suspicion. Over the last 50m she was quicker than Ryan Lochte, who won the men's 400m IM in the second-fastest time in history.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
badder_than_evil said:
I thought the addition of "celebrities" like Daniel Craig to the opening ceremony was really poor.
I never thought we'd be the ones to try "Hollywood" our games.
Yeah, because James Bond is wholly a creation of Hollywood.
I feel sorry for those people who prefer their Olympic opening ceremonies to come in the one flavour - "Triumph Of The Will" - because you're sure as shit not going to get that from Rio in four years' time.
Lotche is obviously the new swimming bad ass...he completely smoked everyone...but seeing that interview with him in his fucking closet and learnIng he owns a blinged-out mouth grill makes it hard to like him...seems like he has a whole lot of dipshit in him.
But that doesn't matter I guess...he is going to murder everyone in the pool.
except for that part where he totally lost at least a body length lead in the 100m freestyle relay... he totally choked...
Lotche is obviously the new swimming bad ass...he completely smoked everyone...but seeing that interview with him in his fucking closet and learnIng he owns a blinged-out mouth grill makes it hard to like him...seems like he has a whole lot of dipshit in him.
But that doesn't matter I guess...he is going to murder everyone in the pool.
except for that part where he totally lost at least a body length lead in the 100m freestyle relay... he totally choked...
And the part where he didn't even medal in the 200 freestyle.
I thought the addition of "celebrities" like Daniel Craig to the opening ceremony was really poor.
I never thought we'd be the ones to try "Hollywood" our games.
Yeah, because James Bond is wholly a creation of Hollywood.
I feel sorry for those people who prefer their Olympic opening ceremonies to come in the one flavour - "Triumph Of The Will" - because you're sure as shit not going to get that from Rio in four years' time.
Ha. I though the Bond/Queen thing was corny as fuck but hey, if QE didn't have a problem with it, I suppose I shouldn't either.
That said, trying to suggest that all Opening Ceremonies need to be like Beijing's is a problem for me. I thought Beijing's OC was incredible but it shouldn't be some kind of template. I thought the London opening was strange but compelling. They had tributes to NATIONAL HEALTH AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, ok? A SAS troop of Mary Poppins parachuted in to defeat Voldermort and company. If that didn't entertain you, I don't know what will.
And seriously, any OC willing to devote what felt like half an hour to the Industrial Revolution deserves some kind of admiration for sheer bollocks (or whatever the appropriate phrase should be here).
America wins more medals than anyone else. 'MERICA!
I think you meant "China," no?
Do you feel that your Asian ancestors compel you to stand up for them and insult the benign, true to history, proclamation of a nationalist? Or are you so reactionary to any prideful statement about the country in which you reside and prosper to realize that you embarrass yourself as a good writer who should know that research is the foundation from which you strayed? A quick, cursory, moments checking will show in table format that even in the most recent Olympic history, the city of the country you misquote couldn't even crest the medal count of the US with home field advantage. Beijing 2008, China total medal count, 100, the US, 110. True they won 15 more gold medals than us but I will upset you once again with surely a fact that anyone should assume living in 'Merica that the nearest competitor in lifetime medal count has approximately half of ours. In fact you could add 2nd and 3rd place together, the Soviet Union and Germany respectively, and the total, 2303, still falls 246 medals short of the leader, the United States of America. China ranks an abysmal 13th, right below Australia.
China is no doubt a rising star of the Olympics, in my lifetime, excelling in gymnastics most memorably, but it still is the broken product of a tyrannical homeland that has seen the collapse of Communism on its borders, appalling environmental and human rights abuse, collusion with enemies of freedom and liberty, and continually finds itself on the wrong side of history with major military defeats and a slow call to modernization, but there is always hope it will turn around. Other single party regimes in it's alumni call to mind the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, and the Ba'ath parties. But it can boast to be the world's largest country in terms of population which also causes it to have the largest reach of native language. Ironically China manufactures the medals that will hang on the necks of more Olympians from the red, white, and blue than from athletes who's country's sweat shops produce them. (I just made that up, I have no idea where Olympic medals are made, but I and presumably any reader would not be surprised if that was the case.) Over the years, Oliver, I've noticed a dark subtext to some of your writings that no doubt spring from your minority status in a country that educated you and gave you opportunities that few other countries could have. Hate America first, reason later.
Some will cower and have cheap laughs about America's problems and errors. Some like me will not. With facts and history on our side we can state that while we haven't always got it right (slavery, civil rights, class warfare, economic inequality), we will never stop until it is right. The struggle will be long and the fight will be hard but progress has been made and will continue to strive forward until every one of our citizens is treated equally and fairly by the law and the people in power. Instead of mocking, I wish more Americans will stand up with the experiment of freedom whose sphere of influence is unbounded in the domains of freedom and equality.
Nothing in our DNA makes us better than any other inhabitant of any country on Earth. It's our ideas and system of government (elucidated in the Constitution) that sets us apart. Nationalistic pride is silly on its face (who among us chose where they were born?) but when the contrast is between moral ideas and tyrannical governments, then I will defend what's right and I will state without abandon, "America, Fuck Yeah!" Those of you who claim victimhood as minorities or sons and daughters of the formerly oppressed ONLY perpetuate those ideas by denying and mocking America, who's progress over the last century has been both breathtaking and influential for all of the world. In the end you just sound not unlike conspiracy theorists and delusional crackpots who impede your own cause rather than unleashing your own potential. But of course it was all about Imperialism and Oil. Safe bets, right? Vegas odds are better. The house, in this case, morality will always win.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
mannybolone said:
DocMcCoy said:
badder_than_evil said:
I thought the addition of "celebrities" like Daniel Craig to the opening ceremony was really poor.
I never thought we'd be the ones to try "Hollywood" our games.
Yeah, because James Bond is wholly a creation of Hollywood.
I feel sorry for those people who prefer their Olympic opening ceremonies to come in the one flavour - "Triumph Of The Will" - because you're sure as shit not going to get that from Rio in four years' time.
Ha. I though the Bond/Queen thing was corny as fuck but hey, if QE didn't have a problem with it, I suppose I shouldn't either.
That said, trying to suggest that all Opening Ceremonies need to be like Beijing's is a problem for me. I thought Beijing's OC was incredible but it shouldn't be some kind of template. I thought the London opening was strange but compelling. They had tributes to NATIONAL HEALTH AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, ok? A SAS troop of Mary Poppins parachuted in to defeat Voldermort and company. If that didn't entertain you, I don't know what will.
And seriously, any OC willing to devote what felt like half an hour to the Industrial Revolution deserves some kind of admiration for sheer bollocks (or whatever the appropriate phrase should be here).
Less Branagh though. I'm saying.
I thought the Bond sequence was hilarious. I'm something of a (small-r) republican when it comes to the Royals, but I have to hand it to Her Maj for going along with it. Picture the negotiations, though; "OK, Your Majesty, what we'd like you to do is moonwalk around the track, then peel off your skin to reveal yourself as a giant lizard, bite the head off a baby, then turn to the camera and wink. No? Well, can we fire you out of a cannon wearing a Princess Diana mask? Not doable either? All right, how about you jump out of a helicopter and paraglide into the arena with James Bond? Yes? Great!"
Right from the jump, the whole thing was full of gags, especially musical ones - huge swathes of the athletes parade being soundtracked by music more readily associated with the use of drugs, most notably Underworld's Dark And Long (Dark Train), which was famously the soundtrack to the cold turkey scene in Trainspotting. Then there were the straight-up jokes (Malaysia entering the arena to Erasure, Fiji to the Bee Gees, etc.), and the fact that none of the artists whose music was featured knew about it - everything was licensed via the BBC's blanket agreement - so you had the likes of David Holmes, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers going on Twitter having just had their minds blown. The soundtrack album (which one of my boys worked on) is #1 on iTunes in thirty countries today.
And I haven't even mentioned how so much of it (like the NHS sequence) was basically a huge fuck-you to the government and the monocultural right-wing orthodoxy peddled by newspapers like the Daily Mail. No wonder MPs and newspaper columnists were blowing gaskets the next day, screaming about "leftie propaganda" and "multicultural crap" as a version of Britain was beamed round the world that must have seemed like their worst nightmare. In the normal order of things, I'd never sit through something like that for three hours, yet I could barely take my eyes off it for fear of missing something amazing. I loved it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
rootlesscosmo said:
mannybolone said:
Less Branagh though. I'm saying.
Why? He's a much more significant cultural ambassador that Harry Potter or Daniel Craig IMO.
(I didn't watch the thing, just saying).
I would bet serious money that, in the eyes of the wider world, Kenneth Branagh's recognition factor as a symbol of British culture wouldn't come remotely near either Harry Potter/JK Rowling or James Bond/Daniel Craig. That said, him reading a passage from The Tempest while dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel as Elgar's Nimrod plays behind him should have been the corniest shit in the world, but it nearly had me jumping on a plane to Heathrow and kissing the tarmac at the other end.
Why? He's a much more significant cultural ambassador that Harry Potter or Daniel Craig IMO.
(I didn't watch the thing, just saying).
I would bet serious money that, in the eyes of the wider world, Kenneth Branagh's recognition factor as a symbol of British culture wouldn't come remotely near either Harry Potter/JK Rowling or James Bond/Daniel Craig. That said, him reading a passage from The Tempest while dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel as Elgar's Nimrod plays behind him should have been the corniest shit in the world, but it nearly had me jumping on a plane to Heathrow and kissing the tarmac at the other end.
I don't doubt that for a second. He's just a much more talented dude than either of the other two is all I'm saying.
I'm not into Harry Potter being so central to the UK's representation of itself to the world. Kinda cheapens the whole thing IMO. I wouldn't want the cast of Friends playing a central role in a future US-hosted opening ceremony. But hey I'm not British, and I didn't watch it.
Comments
I saw that this morning- and, as much as the spectacle of China was a great spectacle (see above post) that article did a great job of synthesizing all the ideas of in last night's opening.
She is Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke, not an Olympic level competitor yet. World class in other respects.
That USA/Croatia game earlier today set back the cause of women's basketball 20 years. Unwatchable.
But that doesn't matter I guess...he is going to murder everyone in the pool.
Big deal...he could get the tail and crush world records without being a dipshit.
Dude seems desperate for attention after being in Phelp's shadow for all these years.
He's always been one of these guys that, despite seeing dozens of photos, I can never recall what he looks like.
I never thought we'd be the ones to try "Hollywood" our games.
I think you meant "China," no?
Except for the 16 yr old Chinese girl:
Yeah, because James Bond is wholly a creation of Hollywood.
I feel sorry for those people who prefer their Olympic opening ceremonies to come in the one flavour - "Triumph Of The Will" - because you're sure as shit not going to get that from Rio in four years' time.
except for that part where he totally lost at least a body length lead in the 100m freestyle relay... he totally choked...
And the part where he didn't even medal in the 200 freestyle.
Dude's light is fading fast if this keeps up.
To be honest, I'm too busy shooting large guns and busting out bitching guitar solos to actually pay attention to the Olympics. 'MERICA!
A shoe-in for USA Gold when that becomes an Olympic event.
At which point GBR will file an objection that Coop is actually 1/8 Welsh.
I need that training regime.
They are on the consideration list along with Rounders and public vomiting.
Ha. I though the Bond/Queen thing was corny as fuck but hey, if QE didn't have a problem with it, I suppose I shouldn't either.
That said, trying to suggest that all Opening Ceremonies need to be like Beijing's is a problem for me. I thought Beijing's OC was incredible but it shouldn't be some kind of template. I thought the London opening was strange but compelling. They had tributes to NATIONAL HEALTH AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, ok? A SAS troop of Mary Poppins parachuted in to defeat Voldermort and company. If that didn't entertain you, I don't know what will.
And seriously, any OC willing to devote what felt like half an hour to the Industrial Revolution deserves some kind of admiration for sheer bollocks (or whatever the appropriate phrase should be here).
Less Branagh though. I'm saying.
One of those is already an Olympic sport. With a record-breaking American champ: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18904234
Why? He's a much more significant cultural ambassador that Harry Potter or Daniel Craig IMO.
(I didn't watch the thing, just saying).
Do you feel that your Asian ancestors compel you to stand up for them and insult the benign, true to history, proclamation of a nationalist? Or are you so reactionary to any prideful statement about the country in which you reside and prosper to realize that you embarrass yourself as a good writer who should know that research is the foundation from which you strayed? A quick, cursory, moments checking will show in table format that even in the most recent Olympic history, the city of the country you misquote couldn't even crest the medal count of the US with home field advantage. Beijing 2008, China total medal count, 100, the US, 110. True they won 15 more gold medals than us but I will upset you once again with surely a fact that anyone should assume living in 'Merica that the nearest competitor in lifetime medal count has approximately half of ours. In fact you could add 2nd and 3rd place together, the Soviet Union and Germany respectively, and the total, 2303, still falls 246 medals short of the leader, the United States of America. China ranks an abysmal 13th, right below Australia.
China is no doubt a rising star of the Olympics, in my lifetime, excelling in gymnastics most memorably, but it still is the broken product of a tyrannical homeland that has seen the collapse of Communism on its borders, appalling environmental and human rights abuse, collusion with enemies of freedom and liberty, and continually finds itself on the wrong side of history with major military defeats and a slow call to modernization, but there is always hope it will turn around. Other single party regimes in it's alumni call to mind the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, and the Ba'ath parties. But it can boast to be the world's largest country in terms of population which also causes it to have the largest reach of native language. Ironically China manufactures the medals that will hang on the necks of more Olympians from the red, white, and blue than from athletes who's country's sweat shops produce them. (I just made that up, I have no idea where Olympic medals are made, but I and presumably any reader would not be surprised if that was the case.) Over the years, Oliver, I've noticed a dark subtext to some of your writings that no doubt spring from your minority status in a country that educated you and gave you opportunities that few other countries could have. Hate America first, reason later.
Some will cower and have cheap laughs about America's problems and errors. Some like me will not. With facts and history on our side we can state that while we haven't always got it right (slavery, civil rights, class warfare, economic inequality), we will never stop until it is right. The struggle will be long and the fight will be hard but progress has been made and will continue to strive forward until every one of our citizens is treated equally and fairly by the law and the people in power. Instead of mocking, I wish more Americans will stand up with the experiment of freedom whose sphere of influence is unbounded in the domains of freedom and equality.
Nothing in our DNA makes us better than any other inhabitant of any country on Earth. It's our ideas and system of government (elucidated in the Constitution) that sets us apart. Nationalistic pride is silly on its face (who among us chose where they were born?) but when the contrast is between moral ideas and tyrannical governments, then I will defend what's right and I will state without abandon, "America, Fuck Yeah!" Those of you who claim victimhood as minorities or sons and daughters of the formerly oppressed ONLY perpetuate those ideas by denying and mocking America, who's progress over the last century has been both breathtaking and influential for all of the world. In the end you just sound not unlike conspiracy theorists and delusional crackpots who impede your own cause rather than unleashing your own potential. But of course it was all about Imperialism and Oil. Safe bets, right? Vegas odds are better. The house, in this case, morality will always win.
I thought the Bond sequence was hilarious. I'm something of a (small-r) republican when it comes to the Royals, but I have to hand it to Her Maj for going along with it. Picture the negotiations, though; "OK, Your Majesty, what we'd like you to do is moonwalk around the track, then peel off your skin to reveal yourself as a giant lizard, bite the head off a baby, then turn to the camera and wink. No? Well, can we fire you out of a cannon wearing a Princess Diana mask? Not doable either? All right, how about you jump out of a helicopter and paraglide into the arena with James Bond? Yes? Great!"
Right from the jump, the whole thing was full of gags, especially musical ones - huge swathes of the athletes parade being soundtracked by music more readily associated with the use of drugs, most notably Underworld's Dark And Long (Dark Train), which was famously the soundtrack to the cold turkey scene in Trainspotting. Then there were the straight-up jokes (Malaysia entering the arena to Erasure, Fiji to the Bee Gees, etc.), and the fact that none of the artists whose music was featured knew about it - everything was licensed via the BBC's blanket agreement - so you had the likes of David Holmes, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers going on Twitter having just had their minds blown. The soundtrack album (which one of my boys worked on) is #1 on iTunes in thirty countries today.
And I haven't even mentioned how so much of it (like the NHS sequence) was basically a huge fuck-you to the government and the monocultural right-wing orthodoxy peddled by newspapers like the Daily Mail. No wonder MPs and newspaper columnists were blowing gaskets the next day, screaming about "leftie propaganda" and "multicultural crap" as a version of Britain was beamed round the world that must have seemed like their worst nightmare. In the normal order of things, I'd never sit through something like that for three hours, yet I could barely take my eyes off it for fear of missing something amazing. I loved it.
I would bet serious money that, in the eyes of the wider world, Kenneth Branagh's recognition factor as a symbol of British culture wouldn't come remotely near either Harry Potter/JK Rowling or James Bond/Daniel Craig. That said, him reading a passage from The Tempest while dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel as Elgar's Nimrod plays behind him should have been the corniest shit in the world, but it nearly had me jumping on a plane to Heathrow and kissing the tarmac at the other end.
I don't doubt that for a second. He's just a much more talented dude than either of the other two is all I'm saying.
I'm not into Harry Potter being so central to the UK's representation of itself to the world. Kinda cheapens the whole thing IMO. I wouldn't want the cast of Friends playing a central role in a future US-hosted opening ceremony. But hey I'm not British, and I didn't watch it.
My only complaint about the music is how shitty they bought many of them in. Some where like the worst radio mixes I've ever heard.
I mean shit. Couldn't they even get Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers to do the edits?
Parts of London were great. Parts were not. Overall I liked it.
Interesting post by Ai Weiwei
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/olympic-opening-ceremony-ai-weiwei-review