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fgalkin wrote:You're easily impressed

fgalkin wrote:

FSTargetDrone wrote:

fgalkin wrote:Oh, and a NHS piece in an Olympic Opening Ceremony? I can understand the desire for inclusiveness, but what is exactly the point of showcasing disability in a competition designed to showcase the peak of human athleticism?

Maybe more suited to the Paralympics? Yes?

My thought exactly. From the deaf children's choir singing the Anthem, to the deaf drummer to the NHS segment, I think it was more suited thematically to the Paralympics than to the main game.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

FSTargetDrone wrote:All the fly-over stuff was fine. I did enjoy the Pig over Battersea Power Station.

Too much pop-culture stuff, though.

LadyTevar wrote:Was the Pig a Dr Who ref? It made me think of the UFO that crashed. The animated Churchill was a WTF, but I love Bond's reaction -- "no, I did not just see that, carry on"

El Moose Monstero wrote:
However, I thought that we should have had someone other than Paul Mcartney and Hey Jude as an end song - his voice is shot and for me, there are better songs to go out on.

Dartzap wrote:Well, from a quick gander of the various feeds...

t'was a Marmite event in all respects. Although the US complaints seem to be focusing on NBC having dire coverage.

Of all the things to laud in Britain's long history, the director of the opening ceremonies for the London Olympics chose for his second act ... universal health care.

Yes, that "NHS" spelled out by hospital beds in Friday's opening ceremonies stands for Britain's National Health Service – the government-run universal health-care system that director Danny Boyle called an "amazing thing to celebrate."

2012 London Olympics quiz: Are you ready for a gold medal?

It is more than a little bit presumptuous to imagine that Mr. Boyle was sending coded political messages to American voters who can't here the words "universal" and "health care" in the same sentence without invoking the Commerce Clause. But that doesn't mean Boyle didn't have a message.

He insisted that message was not political, but rather a reflection of the values that British society holds dear and emanates to the world.

"One of the reasons we put the NHS in the show is that everyone is aware of how important the NHS is to everybody in this country," he said at a press conference earlier in the day. "One of the core values of our society is that it doesn't matter who you are, you will get treated the same in terms of health care."

But not everyone agreed that the message had no hint of politics. "NHS beds dominated the infield for so long that it seemed more a political message than a tribute to our hardworking nurses," wrote the Daily Mail, adding that the spectacle "at times bordered on left-wing propaganda."

Repeatedly, Boyle made it clear that the ceremonies were his vision, and that London organizers gave him enormous freedom to shape them in his image. In that case, it should hardly be surprising that the director of films that chronicled heroin users ("Trainspotting") and the Indian underclass ("Slumdog Millionaire") might craft a performance from a working-class perspective.

Is that political? That is in the eye of the beholder.

But it is hard to escape at least some small sense of advocacy in Boyle's second act, particularly after a cigar-chomping elite let loose the gluttony of unchecked industry on the idyllic English countryside in the first act. This was, it seemed, an opening ceremony for the 99 percent.

In some respects, that gave it a poignancy beyond opening ceremonies of Olympic past – Boyle actually had a cutting message, whatever you thought of it. But for an Olympic movement that has long avoided even the scent of controversy – even forcing cities to ban civic protests during the Games – it was an unusual departure.

FSTargetDrone wrote:You paid how much for all of this? The only part worth watching has been the bit with Daniel Craig and the Queen, most of which was pre-recorded. I'm sorry, but a performance piece about the Industrial Revolution and a retrospective of British pop music does not suggest "Olympics" to me.

Sorry guys, China still has you beat with respect to the Opening Ceremony.

SirNitram wrote:I understand those of us watching in the US missed chunks of stuff.. Like a tribute to the victims of the bombings, and a chant at the end.

weemadando wrote:

SirNitram wrote:I understand those of us watching in the US missed chunks of stuff.. Like a tribute to the victims of the bombings, and a chant at the end.

And a lesbian kiss that NBC edited out but got aired in Saudi Arabia.

WELL DONE MURCA.