Official Olympic Opening Ceremony Thread

[wx4svr]

Wow.. did you see those drummers!? Holy cow! :eek: And yea.. I'm watching it as I type. lol. But that countdown with the drummers was amazing. Simply amazing.

[FD2BLK]

I watched it on the CBC feed this morning live. It gets better.

[wx4svr]

I watched it on the CBC feed this morning live. It gets better.

Crap.. I keep forgetting that people elsewhere have already seen it. If you have already seen it.. DON'T SPOIL IT!! lol. So far.. I am amazed! :D

[FD2BLK]

Crap.. I keep forgetting that people elsewhere have already seen it. If you have already seen it.. DON'T SPOIL IT!! lol. So far.. I am amazed! :D

Oh, I'm not saying a thing.

[elvez]

Dear God,
I had to turn it off between the moron producer who decided a blimp shot would be a great view of people painting with their bodies and the freaking inane commentary.

[Mighty Dyckerson]

I guess the Olympics will be the only story on NBC News for the next two weeks. Nothing like shameless cross promotion.

:rolleyes:

[s'news]

I'm not normally impressed with these sorts of things, but the people in the boxes, wow. How do you even choreograph that sort of thing?

[11-Evil]

yawn - bored.

[Laughing Angel]

A pretty unique Parade of Nations...

[wx4svr]

I'm not normally impressed with these sorts of things, but the people in the boxes, wow. How do you even choreograph that sort of thing?

Not only that, but the drums, and the 2008 guys that always remained in a perfect circle.. incredible. :thumbsup:

[Jane Craig]

SPECTACULAR show to begin it, but worst Olympic fashions EVER.

[Spike]

Now that's some impressive pyrotechnics. It's like the whole damned city is exploding.

[HushHush]

Favorites:
The painting created through dance
The TaeKwonDo Circle - as a former band geek I have to admire the perfection in their circle and lines
The boxes - I thought were run by hydrolics - it was PEOPLE! SO precise - totally impressed.
The fireworks put Disney to shame ... lol
I loved the little 9 year old boy ... but was concerned that Yao Ming was responsible for him.Least Favorites:
The marching in of the countries always take so long
The forever mention of politics vs. the Olympics
Some portions of the show were long and boring ...

[Karma +]

The torch lighting was pretty cool. And all the LED shows were really impressive. I wish I could have watched it on a larger, HD TV.

[Zeke]

I missed a lot of it, but I saw a bit of the drummer part (my favorite part because I used to play drums), and the part where the globe came up out of the floor. I've seen a few photos of the things I missed. Very impressive!!! "Stunning" was a word I heard a narrator use that fits. I hope I'll be able to watch the whole thing again soon, somehow ;)

[vuphinder]

How long was it? 5 hours of coverage? Will someone please tell Costas to retire or someone just shoot him.

[Another side]

The show was a bit long for me because I go to sleep early in order to get up early ... but the two hours or so that I saw was damned impressive.

So impressive, it made me wonder whether China shoots participants who screw up.

And they don't get any better than Costa. He was the easy choice, the only choice.

[tvchick5]

I really enjoyed it. There were many times I found myself saying out loud, "How the heck did they do THAT?". Blown away by the coming out of the floor. Flipped out by the LED screen built into the floor. At one point that thing was 500 feet long! I think they said it is the largest LED screen in the world or something.

At one point Brokaw said it is like the guy who came up with the opening ceremony concept said, "Here's what I'd love to do... now bo build me a venue.". SOOOOOO true!

[wx4svr]

I really enjoyed it. There were many times I found myself saying out loud, "How the heck did they do THAT?". Blown away by the coming out of the floor. Flipped out by the LED screen built into the floor. At one point that thing was 500 feet long! I think they said it is the largest LED screen in the world or something.

At one point Brokaw said it is like the guy who came up with the opening ceremony concept said, "Here's what I'd love to do... now bo build me a venue.". SOOOOOO true!

Yea.. they said that it was the largest LED display in the world. It really was remarkable. I watch all of the "intro" show all the way up to the countries.. then ran and got something to eat, came back just in time for the USA to come out.. sat back down, and finished it out. The torch lighting was awesome.

[s'news]

And yet, just a short while after it ended, I wanted more.

[theultimatetruth]

Totally agree on the awsome synchronicity of the Chinese folks; from 8-10pm, the show was truly amazing.

Then the "parade" of athletes started....who the he!! dresses some of these people!? lol Even our athletes looked like a bunch of wiseguy wannabes. And as usual, the inane blather of commentators was annoying.


Sadly, having to get up at 6am every day, could not stay awake to see the torch lighting....anyone got a link to that? Thanks.

[HushHush]

Sadly, having to get up at 6am every day, could not stay awake to see the torch lighting....anyone got a link to that? Thanks.

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8G6M0q5PD4

[cong]

i watched it in glorious 5.1 hd. the best i've ever seen. the tai chi circles were amazing. an incredible show. i wish nbc had shown it live without commercials, but i understand. you spend $1B on something, you gotta get the most eyeballs possible and load the commercials.

i must be the only one who looks forward to the parade of nations. the look of joy and hope in the athletes faces are inspiring. in that moment, the single athlete from the poorest country is equal to the hundreds from the powerhouse nations.

i know it's sappy, but i get a little misty, *sniff*. with everything from global bloodshed right down to the corruption of the ioc, the parade of nations is countries saying despite it all we offer our best to compete and celebrate in harmony as citizens of the world. it's good stuff.

[wx4svr]

i watched it in glorious 5.1 hd. the best i've ever seen. the tai chi circles were amazing. an incredible show. i wish nbc had shown it live without commercials, but i understand. you spend $1B on something, you gotta get the most eyeballs possible and load the commercials.

i must be the only one who looks forward to the parade of nations. the look of joy and hope in the athletes faces are inspiring. in that moment, the single athlete from the poorest country is equal to the hundreds from the powerhouse nations.

i know it's sappy, but i get a little misty, *sniff*. with everything from global bloodshed right down to the corruption of the ioc, the parade of nations is countries saying despite it all we offer our best to compete and celebrate in harmony as citizens of the world. it's good stuff.

I was watching it in 7.1 HD on my 65" Projection TV. My significant other was watching it upstairs on the bedroom TV (42" LCD) and she also had surround sound on just in 5.1. I could tell SUCH a difference between our big system here in the den, and our smaller, yet still good system in the bedroom. I agree though... live would be cool.. but I can see what they where trying to accomplish, and I think they did that. It was with out a doubt the best HD programing I have seen since I bought our first HDTV in 2006.. which it then died in 2007. KUDOS to NBC and the Olympic Programming Directors. Without a doubt the BEST coverage of a largescale event I have EVER seen.... except for Thunder Over Louisville and the KY Derby. (since I'm in Louisville, that reins ;)) :thumbsup:

[Zeke]

There's a torrent of this in 720p online now! Click-click.

[Ralphie the buffalo]

...but worst Olympic fashions EVER.

What about our people?
I thought the US athletes looked great!
Ralph Lauren made them look classy and confident.
No stupid cowboy hats or short sleeve suits this time around.
The paper boy hats were jaunty and the blazers and neckwear had a timeless quality about them.

[s'news]

Mrs. s'news didn't like the caps.