i was beyond wowed by the beijing olympics and i think it's fair to say that vancouver had the misfortune to be the next country to host an olympics game. really, how does one promote and showcase themselves to the world, following the grandiose opening ceremonies of beijing?!
but, i don't think vancouver did that badly. approximately $30-40M was spend on the opening ceremonies production (about 1/10th what beijing had spent on theirs) there were also more than 100 projectors used to create the landscape of dreams theme. and i think that without the beijing olympics, we wouldn't have had half the projections that we did for opening ceremonies.
so here's my recap of the many moving moments with the minimal amount of requisite cheese:
the good:
60,000 people packed into bc stadium for the first indoor opening ceremonies of a winter olympics ever
photo credit: kevork djansezian / getty images
four tribes of the first nations welcoming the world
photo credit: kevork djansezian / getty images
snowboarder johnny lyall makes his entrance jumping through the olympic rings
photo credit: afp getty
black armbands georgian team wore to honor their fallen comrade during the parade of nations
photo credit: pool / getty images
aurora borealis / northern lights during the hymns of the north segment
orca whale projections on the floor during the spring section
photo credit: jasper juinen / getty images
projections of salmon which then rose up to become totem poles, which transformed into trees
tap dancing punk rock fiddlers in scottish kilts and tattoo sleeves and boots on fire dancing in the rhythms of the fall segment. and slam poetry. how's that for subversive?
photo credit: streeter lecka / getty images
joni mitchell's both sides now song played while aerialist thomas saulgrain, an ecole national de cirque student, ran, cartwheeled and soared through "fields of gold" projections in who has seen the winds
photo credit: streeter lecka / getty images
canada's tribute to tron during peaks of endeavor. inline skaters wearing LED lights raced around the mountain so fast, it was like watching streaks in time lapse photos. in a word, visually awesome.
photo credit: epa
honoring the memory of georgian luger, 21 year old nodar kumaritashvili, who was killed during a training run at whistler's track earlier that day, with a moment of silence
photo credit: getty images
k.d. lang delivering a skin shivering, breath-taking rendition of leonard cohen's hallelujah. now that's a freakin' comeback.
photo credit: cameron spencer / getty images
soprano measha brueggergosman kicking ass and taking names, belting out the olympic anthem. boy, was she fierce!
the meh:
nikki yanfosky butchering the canadian anthem a la mariah//whitney style/celine dion style
sarah mclachlan performing ordinary miracle with her piano
bryan adams and nelly furtado lip-synching the uber cheesy bang the drum
and the what the heck:
photo credit: cameron spencer / getty images
the cute but ginormous sparkly constellation bear. i half expected someone to hand it a bottle of coke
photo credit: kevork djansezian / getty images
due to hydraulic problem, only 3 out of 4 pillars became erect for the lighting of the cauldron. FAIL.
oh, we were so close!
overall a day of emotional highs and lows. when i first heard on twitter of the death of nodar kumaritashvili, my heart just sunk and became heavy all afternoon. especially compounded with pictures and videos of the accident on the net, which the IOC pulled and later the video was played continuously and morbidly on CTV. by 5pm, i was outraged like so many people of the disgusting way in which his death was being exploited.
i didn't think i would enjoy the opening ceremonies with the twisted knot in my stomach, but slowly as the ceremonies began, i started tweeting and sharing live commentary with my fellow twitterers who were also watching at home. the sense of community online made my spirit felt lighter; the laughs we shared over our comedy gold tweets, the props and virtual high fives going around and the epic fails we all agreed on made me feel like even though we may have been watching separately, it was like we were kicking back in the same room, scarfing down drinks and junk food.
maybe next olympic games, we will.
2 comments:
I'm sorry I missed the ceremony. It looks like it was pretty amazing.
@ dave - i like watching opening ceremonies. and beijing was hard to top, obv. but vancouver did good. it certainly infused more olympic spirit into us vancouverites.
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