Saturday, July 28, 2012

Opening Ceremonies Wrap-Up


Well, as you probably know if you are a faithful reader (if not, why aren't you?), I love the olympics. I love the fanfare, the stories, the glory of triumph and the agony of defeat, the wild upsets, the channeled patriotism, the sport-specific commentators, the constant coverage, all of it. So, there was no way I was missing the opening ceremonies last night, especially after I heard Voldemort and Sir Paul McCartney would be there. So, last night I headed over to Cam and Linnea Johnson's (Elsa and Matt's sister and brother-in-law) for our second consecutive opening ceremonies party. Here are my thoughts about last night in no particular order.

1. Obviously the children's choirs starting the show was a big hit, especially when two of the four songs were hymns ("Jerusalem" and "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" - both sung at Kate and William's wedding btw). I earned a fair amount of nerd points with my commentary throughout this section of the opening ceremony. For instance, while we use all kinds of Welsh hymn tunes in our hymnal, "Gude Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" is one of the only Welsh hymns to be translated into English because the language is so difficult to translate into English meter.

2. Umm...how could you not love the Independent Olympic Athletes walking in? My question: what if one of them wins a gold medal? What song are they going to play as they stand on the podium? I guessed "I Gotta Feeling" while Cam guessed "Gettin' Jiggy with It." I guess we'll just have to wait, hope, and see!

3. I loved all the creative transformations throughout, although I wasn't as fond of the "technological age" part of the show. Also, people of Great Britain, we all know Al Gore created the internet...as well as the cure for global warming. So, yeah. I do think one of the highlights was the fairy tale section.

4. Arctic Monkeys were flat throughout the entire singing of "Come Together," though you wouldn't know it by the way Lauer and Costas were singing their praises.

5. Could the queen smile once in a while? Was she at a funeral or the opening games? This clever internet post proves my point.

6. Best olympic cauldron ever. Also, all the mechanics of the rising copper "petals" went off seamlessly. Eat it, Canada.

7. All speakers could try to show a little more general enthusiasm/voice inflection to prove they're actually living human beings rather than drones or automatrons.

8. Paul almost crying and "Hey Jude." Enough said.

Okay, now I have to finish writing a paper and try not to turn on NBC and get sucked in. Later!

2 comments:

  1. My favorite part was the giant baby, and the guy commenting, "I don't know if that's cute or creepy."

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