Olympics Opening Ceremony

[Doug Thornton]

If you're not watching yet, you must see it.
Here on the east coast it will be repeated late tonight.

[David Scollnik]

Saw it (well, as much as I had time to watch) this morning. :)

If you want live coverage instead of NBC's tape delayed coverage, try:

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/livevideo/

[John Tudor]

The Opening Ceremony is really exquisite!

[mai-ling]

2008 Chinamen in the opening sequence.
That's not even 1/32 of the population.

Dad enjoyed what we saw during the broadcast.
Then when the news came on and talked about
the protests with Tibet. He became vocal.
For the first time about it.

He's not yelled at the TV, like that since
before his stroke 10 years ago.

[Jon Racherbaumer]

Putting ALL political considerations and nationalistic exceptionalism aside, the SPECTACLE of the Olympic Opening should give the scions of Vegas pause. Consider the $$$$ it took, not to mention the preparation and rehearsal, to pull off a presentation that took less time it takes to eat a Happy Meal.

Amazing. Truly amazing.

The sleeping giant no longer sleeps.

[Joe Naud]

I could not agree more. I have been an Olympic geek since 1972 and I have never seen anything that measures up to this. Brilliantly done. The drummers, of which I think they said there were 3000 in number was a site to see. To see all of them in constant synchronization was unbelievable. I can only hope they put out a DVD as the constant commercials really took away from the show.
Peace, Joe

[Dave V]

As Mai-Ling said, there were exactly 2008 drummers. They repeated the 2008 theme with the Tai Chi masters as well. All in all, it was a beautiful ceremony. I stepped away for a while during the parade of the countries that seemed to go on FOREVER, but returned in time for the torch lighting, which was also quite impressive.

[Pete Biro]

FLYING FLYIN FLYING... BUT with the budjet (cost no object!!) they should have brought Johnny Gauhan in to make the gaffs invisible.

The most creative live special effects ever... I taped it so we could see it again.

The next country will have to change to small and tasteful.

[Carlo Morpurgo]

FLYING FLYIN FLYING... BUT with the budjet (cost no object!!) they should have brought Johnny Gauhan in to make the gaffs invisible.

The most creative live special effects ever... I taped it so we could see it again.

The next country will have to change to small and tasteful.

I just said the same thing, about JG... but I am wondering if the wires were visible from the audience point of view.

I rate the TV director very poor....really pityful job in directing, choosing and switching cameras. In the flying sequences there is no need to get so close so that we can see the big cables. In other sequences where the global picture is what counts he partially ruined the effect with continuous camera switches and closeups.

Carlo

[Richard Kaufman]

There are flying rigs used all over the world like that now in various types of shows and venues, and none of them make an attempt--a genuine attempt--to render the cables invisible. They don't know how, they can't control the conditions sufficiently, they can't have an undulating silver lame backdrop behind them, and so on.

There is a Little Mermaid show at the Tokyo DisneySea theme park. In it, there are about half a dozen of the flying rigs attached to an enormous turntable--you can look up at the ceiling in the theater (which is in the round) and see it clearly. All of the cables down to the actors are clearly visible. They are supposed to be swimming in the ocean. You forget about the cables.

But all of this is most likely the reason you'll never see David Copperfield do "Flying" again. What was once a remarkable secret is now out in the open.

[Pete Biro]

Yah, it is too bad... David, howerver, did have a great run with it... and so did you Richard (remember that day at Gaughan's).

[Jon Allen]

The next country will have to change to small and tasteful.

The next country will be Great Britain. We can definitely do small and can be tasteful. We may even be ready for 2017.

I'll apologise now for the amount of rain.

[Bill Duncan]

Jon,
NEVER apologise for the rain.

Bill Duncan
Seattle,WA.

[mai-ling]

i re-watched the opening ceremonies before
the march of the nations...and i liked it all.
except for one part.

The worst was the segment with Lang Lang.

I can't stand Lang Lang...
he's the worst pianist currently,
next to Evngy Kissin...
he shouldn't have been allowed to be part of the ceremonies.
it didn't even look like he was even playing the darn piano!

They did not have to someone who has music talent in the segment.
Martin Yan, Jett Li or Jackie Chan would have been great choices.
Or Andy Lau would have even awesome.


Even my dad would have been an awesome choice.
He could fly in his wheel chair...
While producing one of his chinese chickens.





/end rant.