The Opening Ceremony: Let The Games Begin

[Meredith Quill]

Your Opening Ceremony Topic!

[Nicola]

Does anyone know of a streaming service doing the OC's? I can't with NBC, ugh. Thanks for any help. 

[tanyak]

It looks like Peacock is streaming everything, but that's still NBC.

Is anyone planning to watch? I swear the games have had the least buildup of any I can remember in my 47 years. I get the reasons why. I just feel for the athletes. 

[Minneapple]

I'll be up getting the kids ready for school so I might watch the ceremony live (it's at 6:30 a.m. so if I snarl at the TV about how ugly the uniforms for the Opening Ceremony look, it's because I haven't had any coffee yet). I am interested to see how they handle everything on Peacock. For the Summer Games the NBC Sports app was really good so hopefully Peacock isn't total trash.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, tanyak said:

It looks like Peacock is streaming everything, but that's still NBC.

Is anyone planning to watch? I swear the games have had the least buildup of any I can remember in my 47 years. I get the reasons why. I just feel for the athletes. 

I'll be watching bright and early at 6:30am. One benefit of isolating at home after a positive Covid test 👍

I feel like the amount of buildup you sense depends on where you're watching. In some ways it does seem muted, but I watch the local news on an NBC station and there's tons of publicity there, both during the newscast and in the commercials. I also follow nbcolympics on instagram and they've been hitting it hard as well (so much so that I actually unfollow them during the Olympics themselves because it's just too much)

[legaleagle53]

Just FYI, don't bother looking for Tonga's hot flag bearer, Pita Taufatofua, to be in the Opening Ceremony. He's sitting the Beijing Games out for a very good reason, and honestly,  it's so like him to pass on participating this time so he can concentrate on helping to rebuild Tonga after the volcano eruption and the tsunami. Godspeed, Pita, and hopefully, we'll see you in Paris in 2024!

[blueray]

On 2/2/2022 at 1:29 PM, tanyak said:

It looks like Peacock is streaming everything, but that's still NBC.

Is anyone planning to watch? I swear the games have had the least buildup of any I can remember in my 47 years. I get the reasons why. I just feel for the athletes. 

I noticed this too. I also understand why and wouldn't get into it.

I am looking forward to watching the events themselves. 

[Daisy]

I almost... forgot this was happening! 
Me. forgetting an Olympics!! holy moses!

[CherryMalotte]

*sigh* Shame about Pita not being there, but totally understandable - good wishes to all of Tonga.

I totally want Mexico's opening ceremony coat and jackets, very cool! 

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by CherryMalotte

[Rickster]

Well, I guess I was stupid not to add time to my DVR, since it cut off with them bringing in the Olympic flag.

They really needed to turn up the mike on the woman providing background commentary in Beijing. I could barely hear her.

[Guest]

Getting up at 6:30 turned out to be pointless, since it was just "pregame" chatter and promoting the only 4 athletes we're apparently supposed to care about. But the ceremony itself was nice, very stripped down from 2008 obviously, but that's not a bad thing really. I always feel bad for the volunteers lining the walkway as the athletes come in, having to maintain the happy dancing for all that time.

[Daisy]

I don't know what happened but I taped it on TSN4 - but there was this robotic voice throughout it and it just took me out of it. Luckily CBC.ca had a recording and i watched it there.

I have to say - China sure knows how to design a programme. 

I love the snowflake outfits of the sign carriers, the laser light show on the iceblock..
Canada was very red. lol

[ouinason]

you probably ended up with Descriptive Audio

[ferjy]

16 hours ago, Daisy said:

I almost... forgot this was happening! 
Me. forgetting an Olympics!! holy moses!

Will wonders never cease! Having said that, I forgot to record the opening ceremony, so I guess I'll have to wait tntil 8 p.m. to watch the replay on CBC.

Seems like we were just here yesterday.

[Daisy]

2 minutes ago, ferjy said:

Will wonders never cease! Having said that, I forgot to record the opening ceremony, so I guess I'll have to wait tntil 8 p.m. to watch the replay on CBC.

Seems like we were just here yesterday.

hewwo friend!!! :D

 

[ferjy]

28 minutes ago, Daisy said:

hewwo friend!!! :D

 

{{{waves}}}  Hey, buddy! Another few sleepless weeks coming up!

Apparently Charles Hamelin was the flag-bearer for Canada. I wasn't sure he'd still be competing. He was great in 2010 in Vancouver.

CBC isn't broadcasting the Olympics at the moment. I'm having to watch NBC which of course is showing the American skaters.

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by ferjy

[ferjy]

More commercials than ceremony on CBC. I'm still mad at them for cutting out the pictograms performance in Tokyo.

 

 

 

[Dots And Stripes]

It's really happening! Things have been so uncertain I'm thrilled things are under way.

[chitowngirl]

I can barely hear the NBC announcers over the music. If only there was a way the sound engineer could fix that between this morning and now 🙄

[Crashcourse]

The sound quality is awful.

[Fostersmom]

Is this the music China really played or something NBC dubbed in? William Tell Orchestra, Pomp and Circumstance, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies? 

 

[emma675]

What is up with NBC's sound? I could barely hear the music last night during figure skating and now it's so loud I can barely hear the announcers. 

[galaxygirl76]

3 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

I can barely hear the NBC announcers over the music. If only there was a way the sound engineer could fix that between this morning and now 🙄

My husband was complaining loudly when he couldn't hear the explanation of the order of entry of the countries.

[chitowngirl]

I also don’t need all of the Politics in the announcements. Tell me about the athletes and what they are competing in!

[Fostersmom]

Um, did Putin doze off there? 

 

[Crashcourse]

1 minute ago, chitowngirl said:

I also don’t need all of the Politics in the announcements. Tell me about the athletes and what they are competing in!

Exactly!

 

[galaxygirl76]

Putin looked like he was napping.

[Crashcourse]

Just now, Fostersmom said:

Um, did Putin doze off there? 

 

And he's not wearing a mask.

[Crashcourse]

The sideline greeters are certainly getting their exercise.

[Constant Viewer]

1 minute ago, Crashcourse said:

The sideline greeters are certainly getting their exercise.

I kind of feel sorry for them, they will be exhausted by the end. on the other hand, they get to be in an Olympics ceremony.

I like the dresses the snowflake bearers are wearing.

[legaleagle53]

I wish they'd show the countries' names written in Pinyin (Roman alphabet) so I could learn the names in Mandarin. The only countries I know in that language are Canada, the US, England, Japan, and China.

[Crashcourse]

10 minutes ago, Constant Viewer said:

I kind of feel sorry for them, they will be exhausted by the end. on the other hand, they get to be in an Olympics ceremony.

I like the dresses the snowflake bearers are wearing.

I figured they trained almost like the Olympic athletes to get in shape. 

[galaxygirl76]

The music is really getting on my nerves.

[Crashcourse]

1 minute ago, galaxygirl76 said:

The music is really getting on my nerves.

I wish the sideline dancers would break out into a waltz.

[Fostersmom]

2 minutes ago, galaxygirl76 said:

The music is really getting on my nerves.

It's repetitive and getting even louder. 

 

[Constant Viewer]

I like Great Britain's sweaters.

[Crashcourse]

The French athletes look like red, white and blue penguins.

[Constant Viewer]

The French flag bearers look like they're having fun.

[galaxygirl76]

Look at Norway dominating at the Winter Games with their 5.5 million people.

[Crashcourse]

Awww...he's certainly no Pita but the oiled up American Samoan guy is cute.  Thanks for carrying on the tradition.

[legaleagle53]

We haven't even gotten to Tonga yet, Crashcourse. I do wonder who will be standing in for Pita, though.

[Crashcourse]

22 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

We haven't even gotten to Tonga yet, Crashcourse. I do wonder who will be standing in for Pita, though.

Yes, that might be interesting.

Understandably, Tonga isn't there.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Crashcourse

[galaxygirl76]

It always warms my heart to see first time countries.

[BitterApple]

The snowflake dresses the sign bearers are wearing are gorgeous. They're giving me real Frozen vibes. 

[Constant Viewer]

7 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

The snowflake dresses the sign bearers are wearing are gorgeous. They're giving me real Frozen vibes. 

I also like how they have matching masks and boots!

[BitterApple]

Team Mexico's parkas with the sugar skulls are bad ass.

[emmawoodhouse]

Team Italia, WTF were those fug flag ponchos? 

[galaxygirl76]

I'm 46 and have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, you go Claudia! lol

[Good Queen Jane]

All the Chinese flag bearers standing behind the IOC chief must have been told to smile. 

[friendperidot]

My television has pretty good color, it's usually fairly true, but almost all the colors of the teams jackets, coats, etc looked washed out and the flags of all the countries too. I wonder if it had to do with the color lights of the arena and the led screen they were walking on. Reds and whites were bright, but blues were particularly washed out. I really noticed it with Great Britain's flag.