London Olympics 2012

[Martina]

I only saw a half an hour, mostly the sixties and seventies stuff. I agree that the commentators needed to shut up.

But even without that, it was dull, dull, dull.

I think using TV/Film clips is cheating. There was too much close up stuff. The trick of this as theatre is to make it big and original. The parts I saw were neither.

The complicated projections on the audience part of the stadium were impressive. But that was technology. On the ground, it was like dinner theatre with glow in the dark stickies.

I am too tired to continue. Beckham driving that boat was hot. Hell, the boat alone was hot.

[Leigh]

Didn't mean to spoil it for the other time zones

[~ocean]

I adore british humor , esp old Benny Hill shows , Bean . i think they took Benny Hill off the air or quite a few years now .

[Ciaran]

I thought that the Opening Ceremony was rather disjointed and chaotic. I'm sure that's part of what Danny Boyle was intending to create but, for me, it meant that I found myself losing interest in large sequences. Some humourous moments, some parts that I thought worked well and some that didn't.


On the very positive side, I was very pleased to see Northern Ireland feature so strongly in the event, right from the start when the Phil Kids' Choir was featured in a video clip of the Giant's Gauseway singing Danny Boy, through to actor Kenneth Branagh's role as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and concluding with Dame Mary Peters (first Northern Ireland athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in Munich 1972) symbolically passing an Olympic torch to Katie Kirk, a young girl from Belfast who was one of 8 chosen to light the Olympic cauldron.


The mood in London is reasonably upbeat at this stage although it will be the early part of next week when we see if the public transport network holds up (this is the biggest concern of many of us who live and work in London). I met up with a friend for a coffee in Picadilly this morning and there was an air of excitement and anticipation, that after seven years of planning the time has finally come.


The first event I'm going to is UK versus Italy in women's volleyball next Wednesday afternoon. Looking forward to this if the sunny weather continues and the public transport network holds up.

[Rockinonahigh]

I never quits got it about the opening....But...there are countries in this year I never herd of competeing.

[Martina]

Someone on the internet snarked that under the Queen's dour expression, there should be a caption reading, "Let the Hunger Games begin!"

[NJFemmie]

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by NJFemmie

Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales...Still

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/op...pagewanted=all

http://debatewise.org/debates/346-un...land-yes-or-no

http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/...k&type=article

[QueenofSmirks]

Originally Posted by Martina

Someone on the internet snarked that under the Queen's dour expression, there should be a caption reading, "Let the Hunger Games begin!"

Someone posted her pic on facebook with the caption, "Look at all of the countries I used to own."

Edited: oops, I see someone posted it on this thread too!

[Soon]

The Croatia team (last ranked) are really playing a good game against the first ranked USA team. It's the fourth quarter, and I'm pretty sure USA will win, but the close score at times kept my interest up.

Croatia got there by knocking out the Canadians!

[Gráinne]

Regarding the opening ceremony, obviously, Americans aren't going to get all the humor and references, unless they watch the BBC or are very familiar with British culture. When the orchestra started "Chariots of Fire", I was all ready for one of my favorite songs, and my favorite part of an otherwise long movie, but thought the comedian ruined it . I understand it was deliberate, and the conductor was in on it, but I didn't like him. Maybe an acquired taste?

The baby thing was a little strange as well. And the winged people on bicycles, so help me, reminded me of the monkey soldiers on Oz.

But the parade of nations, and everything forward from that except the bicyclists, was amazing. I loved the cauldron. And hey, it's the Olympics; it's allowed to be over the top and all kinds of effects.

[JustJo]

I actually really enjoyed the opening ceremonies (although the giant baby was a little creepy instead of cute to me). It was very British....which is only right. I love to see the host company use that as a chance to celebrate themselves a bit and share who they are and where they come from with the rest of the world.

Of course, I've always loved British humor, and was delighted with all the references to children's literature.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Martina

I only saw a half an hour, mostly the sixties and seventies stuff. I agree that the commentators needed to shut up.

But even without that, it was dull, dull, dull.

I think using TV/Film clips is cheating. There was too much close up stuff. The trick of this as theatre is to make it big and original. The parts I saw were neither.

The complicated projections on the audience part of the stadium were impressive. But that was technology. On the ground, it was like dinner theatre with glow in the dark stickies.

I am too tired to continue. Beckham driving that boat was hot. Hell, the boat alone was hot.

NBC diced and sliced A LOT of the ceremony opting to keep more of the cinematic close ups rather than the large stadium staging. It was a poor choice for many reasons - the production became more disjointed, and it really didn't do justice to the set design and choreography.

But then they think American audiences are dull, easily bored and require constant play-by-play explanations, that they won't sit still and take it in if they don't "get it" immediately.

They think we're an ADD small bite, small screen viewing audience and not capable of grasping and appreciating conceptual art or theatre production values.