The Opening Ceremony: Let The Games Begin

[galaxygirl76]

Call me crazy, but didn't we do Imagine at the last opening too?

[Dots And Stripes]

7 minutes ago, galaxygirl76 said:

Call me crazy, but didn't we do Imagine at the last opening too?

Imagine is a staple at opening ceremonies.

[Mittengirl]

Pretty sure you are correct Galaxygirl76.  I feel like it has been used multiple times in the past.  I could live happily without it ever being used again..

Edited February 5, 2022 by Mittengirl

[Dots And Stripes]

The countries' snowflakes fitting together into one big snowflake is cool, but I miss a big cauldron. 

[Mirabelle]

I was hoping the entire snowflake would catch fire.

[legaleagle53]

4 minutes ago, Dots And Stripes said:

The countries' snowflakes fitting together into one big snowflake is cool, but I miss a big cauldron. 

Yes,  I have to say that I was spectacularly underwhelmed by the lighting ceremony.

And I agree about something else. Can we PLEASE knock it off with the political commentary for the next 16 days? The Olympics are supposed to transcend all that nonsense!

[annzeepark914]

I was really surprised by all the political talk and don't remember stuff like this at previous Olympics. The audio was better tonight. But if there still is a problem with it tomorrow night during the team event, I'm calling our NBC affiliate to find out whom to contact at NBC in NY. While watching the TE last night, I was clutching the remote so I could keep adjusting the sound. What a PITA. They had audio issues at a previous event...maybe Nationals or one of the Grand Prix events.

[galaxygirl76]

I too miss a big cauldron. I like it when it's very visible in the host city, I mean are they even doing any events at the Birds Nest? This was very meh.

[Cherpumple]

I think this ceremony was the appropriate scale in the present circumstances, but it was pretty underwhelming and short. Between the soothing colors and the subdued music, the artistic part was pretty calming, which was nice, but I'm so sick of "Imagine" that I just yelled at my tv during that part. And could the Olympic flame be any smaller? Beautiful snowflake, but very anticlimactic.

I was disappointed in the team uniforms. They all ranged between "fine" and "really cool" and I didn't have anything hideous to snark at. Boo!

I don't mind if NBC goes into political stuff during specific segments over the course of the next two weeks, but repeatedly bringing it up during the Opening Ceremonies was a bad call. Let's just celebrate the athletes and artistic directors right now, and then you can interview your China experts later, mm'kay?

That being said, I have to admit that a chill ran down my spine when I saw that one of the torch lighters was a Uyghur. It immediately made me think of Helene Mayer, a top level Jewish fencer from Germany who was used by the Nazis and the IOC in the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a "token Jew" on the German team to prevent a boycott of the games by other countries. She won a silver medal and gave a Nazi salute on the podium, in an effort to protect her family members who were already in labor camps. It's an awful story all around, and I can only imagine what kind of parallels are happening right now.

[Fostersmom]

9 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

Pretty sure you are correct Galaxygirl76.  I feel like it has been used multiple times in the past.  I could live happily without it ever being used again..

The guy I sit by at work was streaming the opening ceremony yesterday morning on his phone. I could half hear it. I said something when I heard Imagine, he said he hated the song. LOL! I told him at this point, it was pretty much an Olympic requirement for it to be played and it makes sense since it's probably a song that it recognizable to all the athletes, no matter what country they are from. 

[blueray]

13 hours 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!

At this point I was thinking "you got be kidding"...

I missed the beginning of it and had turned it on about 9:00. At first to NBC, who were all American centric of course. They at least didn't show them on a bus lol. But still annoying. I'm lucky to be able to get Canada's fed as well. However, for reason they were like 15 minutes  ahead of NBC  (maybe due to commercials?). My favorite part by far is seeing all the countries march in, which meant I had to flip back to NBC as I missed a lot. Then once the US came though and it seemed better... then the politics came...

Overall, loved all the outfits for the countries and still get that feeling of pride when a single athlete marches in for their country. I am always rooting for them to take it home especially if their country has never won. 

[Crashcourse]

Maybe I missed it, but did they show the Jamaican bobsled team?

[Good Queen Jane]

46 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

Maybe I missed it, but did they show the Jamaican bobsled team?

NBC did. And we also were told that “Cool Running” was one of Samantha’s favorite movies. 

[meep.meep]

Worst cauldron ever!

[Mittengirl]

Is it really even a cauldron?  Looks more like a hanging torch.  (Like a tiki torch without a post.)

[madhacker]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

Worst cauldron ever!

So Say We All!!

yeah this is a totally lame Cauldron. The best one in my very humble opinion was the London one especially when the idividual copper flames from all the comepeting nations all rose up and formed one huge flame, symbolic and awesome

[annzeepark914]

Which Olympics was it when someone shot a flaming arrow up to the cauldron to light it? One would have to be extremely confident in one's archery skills to do that in front of the world 😎.

[choclatechip45]

18 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Which Olympics was it when someone shot a flaming arrow up to the cauldron to light it? One would have to be extremely confident in one's archery skills to do that in front of the world 😎.

Barcelona!

[emmawoodhouse]

18 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Which Olympics was it when someone shot a flaming arrow up to the cauldron to light it? One would have to be extremely confident in one's archery skills to do that in front of the world 😎.

Barcelona. 

[galaxygirl76]

4 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Which Olympics was it when someone shot a flaming arrow up to the cauldron to light it? One would have to be extremely confident in one's archery skills to do that in front of the world 😎.

That one was cool and so was Lillehammer when a ski jumper brought the torch into the stadium by jumping down the hill.

[Quickbeam]

Sort of related….I detest the commercials with the American marquee athletes skiing and skating with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. As an American I can only hope other countries aren’t seeing this. I am embarrassed for us.

[MaryMitch]

2 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

Sort of related….I detest the commercials with the American marquee athletes skiing and skating with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. As an American I can only hope other countries aren’t seeing this. I am embarrassed for us.

Different strokes - I love that commercial!

[DawnDavenport]

18 hours ago, galaxygirl76 said:

That one was cool and so was Lillehammer when a ski jumper brought the torch into the stadium by jumping down the hill.

Despite the part of the cauldron getting stuck on it's way up that ramp, the Sydney lighting was pretty cool too.

[Guest]

59 minutes ago, DawnDavenport said:

Despite the part of the cauldron getting stuck on it's way up that ramp, the Sydney lighting was pretty cool too.

In that vein, the Vancouver cauldron had issues during the opening ceremony - it was a kind of tripod with three big pieces coming out of the floor of the stadium to meet in the middle to form the cauldron. Three torch bearers were supposed to stand at the base of each piece and light them, with all three flames shooting up to the top. Unfortunately, one piece didn't come out and the torch bearer, Catriona Le May Doan, had to just stand there while the other two did their thing. After the ceremony, they got the third piece up.

But THEN, in the closing ceremony, they had the third piece down in the ground again and had a "worker" clown go through a whole bit where he had to manually heave it out of the ground. Then a trap door opened and up popped...Catriona Le May Doan with a torch, so she got to light her piece after all.

It was a case where you're almost glad the mishap happened, because how they dealt with it was so awesome.

To veer this back around on topic, I was also a bit let down by this year's "cauldron", but was also a bit worried that the whole thing was going to come crashing down, since it seemed to be wobbling a bit as it went up in the air. But I'm sure they tested the heck out of it.

Edited February 6, 2022 by tracyscott76
Topic

[GreyBunny]

On 2/4/2022 at 8:53 PM, galaxygirl76 said:

I too miss a big cauldron. I like it when it's very visible in the host city, I mean are they even doing any events at the Birds Nest? This was very meh.

That’s it? No cauldron? Just a tiny little torch flame? Same energy as the 18-inch Stonehenge from Spinal Tap.

We need the archer from Barcelona.

[gingerella]

The Opening Ceremonies neither thrilled nor bored me, they were mediocre but I did dog the snowflake theme and how thr cauldron was made up of snowflakes with each country represented. But that flame? Are you fucking kidding China?! It was like a match sized flame, so weirdly tiny!

What I really detested was Chinese military goosestepping it up in the flag raising ceremony. I was shocked the IOC allowed that shit. And while I understand the Olympics are a non political event and a way to showcase all countries working together, it was chilling and really offputting to see the IOC allowed that. OTOH, I awarded the IOC president's speech and the political overtones so I'm perplexed as to why China was allowed to use military in their opening Ceremonies.