Saturday, February 11, 2006
Game on!
Ok, I did it. I watched my very first Olympic opening ceremony. Um, I don't have any sort of tv guide, so I had no clue that was going to last FOUR hours. Obviously, I had to make a few meals during that time and had to get up a few other times because it hurt to sit on the couch that long. But I caught all the interesting parts.
It was a little bit of everything: inspiring, absurd, puzzling, surprising, funny, elegant and sweet. It started off with a former Olympian banging a hammer against an anvil that shot flames into the air. Then there were performers wearing red who formed the shape of a heart. There was a tribute to the Alps with flags flown for each nation the mountain range touches. And then it got really weird.
I'm not sure if the dancing cows were meant to be funny or part of the tribute to the Italian Alps, but they really cracked me up. And then there were these ballroom dancers wearing outfits with Holstein patterns on them. The moving evergreen trees made sense to me; of course, the state tree where I live is a spruce.The more traditional outfits were cool, though.
Everyone in the stands had been asked to wear white. I missed why; perhaps to symbolize peace? Anyway, it made a nice backdrop for the more colorful festivities. Laura Bush was in attendance in the stands, which I liked.
The parade of athletes was lengthy but enlightening. Except for Greece coming out first because they began the Olympics and Italy coming out last because they were hosting, the countries appeared in alphabetical order. Or should I say, Italian alphabetical order. The banners for each nation were in Italian, so a country like Hungary in English would appear in the "H"s, but in Italian, it starts with a "U". I was surprised how many nations were represented since so many parts of the world don't get snow. I noticed several of the athletes actually lived and trained in the US but represented the nation of their birth. The banner carriers for each nation wore white dresses with pointy "peaks" on them that were supposed to represent the Alps. Some nations only had one athlete participating, so he or she would be carrying that nation's flag. I was pleased to find out there was a woman athlete who is 52 years old. There's also a man the same age from another country. Most of the athletes looked very pleased and proud to be there; some had brought camcorders to document the occasion. One thing I really appreciated is that there was no booing or jeering of ANYONE, even the athletes representing unpopular nations like Iran. And I was surprised to see that North and South Korea had combined their athletes to form one team. USA had over 200 athletes in assemblage; I'm not sure whether they had the most or not. One VERY weird note: the music playing during the entire parade was American disco and early 80's music. I wonder what the guy from Kenya thought as "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer was playing??
There was a lot more spectacle after the parade, some traditional and some almost other-worldly. There was traditional Italian flag-waving, which I enjoyed very much as it is colorful and elaborate. There was a representation of the painting "The Birth of Venus", modern dance with a man in an outfit that looked like all his veins and his heart were showing, and performers suspended on wires forming the shape of a dove. Yoko Ono came out and read a little speech about peace and of course quoted "Imagine". Then Peter Gabriel actually sang "Imagine", which was way cool. The Olympic flag was brought in by eight famous women from different nations. One of them was Sophia Loren, one was Susan Sarandon, one was an African woman I recognized as a Nobel Peace Prize winner. There were also traditional songs, the raising of the Italian flag and their national anthem sung by a fourth-grader, and music made especially for this Olympics. Naturally, I was quite pleased with all the references to peace. Even if it's an illusion, for a few weeks, I can pretend we all can get along.
At last it was time for the torch. I recognized one of the torch bearers as Alberto Tomba, the famous and outrageous Italian skier. The other bearers were also Italian athletes. The final bearer, a woman, touched the torch to a metal arch, and it set off fireworks around the stadium and up to this massive torch at the top of the stadium. Then Luciano Pavarotti sang, and more fireworks rounded out the evening.
Don't know how much coverage of the events I'm going to watch; like I said, I don't have a tv guide, so I'll probably just wing it and tune in from time to time to see if anything interesting is going on. My preference is for snowboarding, figure skating and speed skating. Since Torino is about 8 hours ahead of my time zone, I expect it's all going to be pre-recorded and edited to fit into prime time during the week. And of course all the coverage is biased in favor of the US, so I won't have any trouble keeping track of the medal count. I wonder if I'll be able to resist the temptation to check the results on the internet first? Kinda like visiting a website that contains spoilers for your fave tv show or movie.
Probably will miss tomorrow night's coverage as Dan and I want to go to a movie if we can find one we agree on. Problem is, while I would go see something like "Good Night and Good Luck", "Transamerica" or "Brokeback Mountain", Dan would rather watch "Final Destination 3" or maybe "When a Stranger Calls". It's the weekend before Valentine's Day; where are the romantic comedies? I think we may be able to compromise on "Walk the Line" or maybe "Fun with Dick and Jane".
But I think I will be stuck with the image of athletes parading to "Y.M.C.A." for quite awhile, heh heh.
It was a little bit of everything: inspiring, absurd, puzzling, surprising, funny, elegant and sweet. It started off with a former Olympian banging a hammer against an anvil that shot flames into the air. Then there were performers wearing red who formed the shape of a heart. There was a tribute to the Alps with flags flown for each nation the mountain range touches. And then it got really weird.
I'm not sure if the dancing cows were meant to be funny or part of the tribute to the Italian Alps, but they really cracked me up. And then there were these ballroom dancers wearing outfits with Holstein patterns on them. The moving evergreen trees made sense to me; of course, the state tree where I live is a spruce.The more traditional outfits were cool, though.
Everyone in the stands had been asked to wear white. I missed why; perhaps to symbolize peace? Anyway, it made a nice backdrop for the more colorful festivities. Laura Bush was in attendance in the stands, which I liked.
The parade of athletes was lengthy but enlightening. Except for Greece coming out first because they began the Olympics and Italy coming out last because they were hosting, the countries appeared in alphabetical order. Or should I say, Italian alphabetical order. The banners for each nation were in Italian, so a country like Hungary in English would appear in the "H"s, but in Italian, it starts with a "U". I was surprised how many nations were represented since so many parts of the world don't get snow. I noticed several of the athletes actually lived and trained in the US but represented the nation of their birth. The banner carriers for each nation wore white dresses with pointy "peaks" on them that were supposed to represent the Alps. Some nations only had one athlete participating, so he or she would be carrying that nation's flag. I was pleased to find out there was a woman athlete who is 52 years old. There's also a man the same age from another country. Most of the athletes looked very pleased and proud to be there; some had brought camcorders to document the occasion. One thing I really appreciated is that there was no booing or jeering of ANYONE, even the athletes representing unpopular nations like Iran. And I was surprised to see that North and South Korea had combined their athletes to form one team. USA had over 200 athletes in assemblage; I'm not sure whether they had the most or not. One VERY weird note: the music playing during the entire parade was American disco and early 80's music. I wonder what the guy from Kenya thought as "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer was playing??
There was a lot more spectacle after the parade, some traditional and some almost other-worldly. There was traditional Italian flag-waving, which I enjoyed very much as it is colorful and elaborate. There was a representation of the painting "The Birth of Venus", modern dance with a man in an outfit that looked like all his veins and his heart were showing, and performers suspended on wires forming the shape of a dove. Yoko Ono came out and read a little speech about peace and of course quoted "Imagine". Then Peter Gabriel actually sang "Imagine", which was way cool. The Olympic flag was brought in by eight famous women from different nations. One of them was Sophia Loren, one was Susan Sarandon, one was an African woman I recognized as a Nobel Peace Prize winner. There were also traditional songs, the raising of the Italian flag and their national anthem sung by a fourth-grader, and music made especially for this Olympics. Naturally, I was quite pleased with all the references to peace. Even if it's an illusion, for a few weeks, I can pretend we all can get along.
At last it was time for the torch. I recognized one of the torch bearers as Alberto Tomba, the famous and outrageous Italian skier. The other bearers were also Italian athletes. The final bearer, a woman, touched the torch to a metal arch, and it set off fireworks around the stadium and up to this massive torch at the top of the stadium. Then Luciano Pavarotti sang, and more fireworks rounded out the evening.
Don't know how much coverage of the events I'm going to watch; like I said, I don't have a tv guide, so I'll probably just wing it and tune in from time to time to see if anything interesting is going on. My preference is for snowboarding, figure skating and speed skating. Since Torino is about 8 hours ahead of my time zone, I expect it's all going to be pre-recorded and edited to fit into prime time during the week. And of course all the coverage is biased in favor of the US, so I won't have any trouble keeping track of the medal count. I wonder if I'll be able to resist the temptation to check the results on the internet first? Kinda like visiting a website that contains spoilers for your fave tv show or movie.
Probably will miss tomorrow night's coverage as Dan and I want to go to a movie if we can find one we agree on. Problem is, while I would go see something like "Good Night and Good Luck", "Transamerica" or "Brokeback Mountain", Dan would rather watch "Final Destination 3" or maybe "When a Stranger Calls". It's the weekend before Valentine's Day; where are the romantic comedies? I think we may be able to compromise on "Walk the Line" or maybe "Fun with Dick and Jane".
But I think I will be stuck with the image of athletes parading to "Y.M.C.A." for quite awhile, heh heh.
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