I am loving how londoners are getting behind the games this year. It has really embrace the games in the week. Yes there was a lot of debate (for instance, how can any country economically support this rather leviathan-like event during a crisis when the figures are eye-watering). But....trust the british to get in the mood http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6SMkeZBk7pk The Rehearsals last night I got lump in my throat at these photos. SOOOO PROUD!!!!
Yeah, it seems like enough is enough with the cynicism and worries. It's happening, let's enjoy it! I'm really looking forward to all the sports action over the next couple of weeks. Great collection of pics, by the way.
Some nice pictures there. I had a go at joining in ringing the bells at 0812 this morning from my bedroom, although all I had to hand at that time was my phone's "classic bell" ringtone. Still, I see that lots of others managed to get in the mood. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmCtGKwgJ2k[/yt] I'm looking forward to the opening ceremony - for one thing, my cousin is one of the dancers, although I'm not sure if we'll see her among the chickens, nurses and rain. Overall, this should be a fun event.
I had posted a photo of Sir Patrick Stewart carrying the Olympic flame in the Sports and Fitness forum.
Kindaaaaaa wished id gone for tickets now - especially the swimming ones...ahem. The mens waterpolo especially. Ahem.
Quite my dear boy quite. Went rather well what? (on a serious note the lighting of the Olympic Flame by the young athletes was a nice touch, a literal passing of the torch as it were...)
Nice pics, PopBoy. The one I love that isn't in this thread is all the Holdfasts raining down from the sky.
Having your own city host the Olympics is such a privilege. I'm glad London was able to pull off a decent ceremony. I'm not the sort to get patriotic or proud over such things, but I certainly felt a great deal of satisfaction watching that.
Nice pictures PopBoy I found the opening ceremony very entertaining. Had a few tears in my eyes also. Now bring two weeks where the world comes together. Loved the popseeds with the flame.
That was amazing from start to finish, with a great programme and good humour throughout, plus great use of the celebrity cameos here and there. Loved the cheeky set-piece centred around the NHS. Not bad for £27 million.
My mother and sister both left for a brief toilet break just as Rowan Atkinson made his apperance. They both thought a musical piece would be a safe point at which to skip a minute; they had to double-track when I gave a happy call of "look who's here next" . And it's great that they got the Queen involved, with the pre-prepared film.
Am I Bond or are you calling me a Queen? Ohhhh, wait,you mean Mary... I usually get very bored at these kind of big set piece opening/closing ceremonies, but this one was superbly done. Danny Boyle deserves some serious honour in the New Year List for balancing so many competing interests: politically balanced with enough nods to their respective pet causes to please both the right and the left; enough in-jokes, irony and tongue-in-cheek humour to please the cynics; enough TV special effects and video razmatazz to please a global TV audience not used to that kind of graphic overlay on this kind of ceremony; enough technical wizardry to please the stadium audience; and simple flag-waving jingoism, emotional set-pieces, symbolism, and cracking soundtrack to please anyone not already mentioned above. And of course, to paraphrase Frasier Crane, because no show is perfect if it doesn't have an imperfection you can complain about, we even got a slight backing track error at the start of Hey Jude. What more can you ask for? Great job all round; fabulous start. Makes you proud to be British; only we would dare to poke so much fun at the Olympics and its pompous ceremonies while still managing to balance that light-heartedness of approach with an understanding of what it really should be emotionally about. Nicely done indeed.
It didn't please everyone: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jul/28/olympics-opening-ceremony-multicultural-crap-tory-mp I was on Twitter when the remarks first emerged. Needless to say, the Twittersphere tore the guy apart.
There was a lot of lefty stuff whose symbolism I disagreed with (Jarrow hunger strikers, the identity of some of the Olympic Flag carriers, a few other bits and pieces), but IMO it was balanced perfectly by a lot of right-wing stuff too (the flag-waving, the Queen, Churchill, the City, the armed forces, the general light-hearted slightly paternalistic tone of not taking any of the lefty stuff particularly seriously, including the Olympics itself... not to mention the presence of Bond, probably the ultimate expression of a macho right wing traditional Britishness, and Beckham playing a sub-Bondesque role with the speedboat). Besides, since we have a Tory Prime Minister and a Tory Mayor of London, it's possible to be a little generous to the left without it coming across as slanted. I might have felt differently if Labour were still in power, but then again, I think the ceremony would probably have had some differences if that had been the case. I think it would have been a big mistake for Boyle not to have addressed both political wings; it's part of the ceremony being a conversation with the nation saying that whichever wing you happen to belong to, remember to still have fun over the next two weeks. It was quite a difficult message, but overall, I though the balance was very well done. Better to have addressed it, than to have ignored it, as this way is more likely to result in greater unity - and positive feeling - over the next few weeks. (To be exceptionally political about it, that boost actually has potential to support the current government in the polls, at least temporarily, so regardless of the content of the message, its effect is more likely to be pro-right than pro-left. Burley is a short-sighted fool not to recognise the potential political capital that can be accrued from a successful hosting and performance in the Games).