Forget the imperialist drumming. Canada is going to have everyone dress like snow and sing some wacky songs 'round the campfire. I randomly flipped to the opening ceremonies for the first time just as K.D. Lang was belting out Hallelujah and a friend texted me at that moment that she was singing (since we've discussed that song particularly). That timing was pretty wacky as I'd forgotten the Olymics were starting tonight despite seeing the news about the dead luger earlier today. I just get bored during commercials and still don't have TiVo.
Anyhow, The Canadians are going to be polite about these ceremonies, but they won't look enthused. Still, for the opera, they managed about as well as one can not to seem totally trapped. (Or worried they'd get lost in her enormous hair.) Now they're talking of sportsmanship and well, apparently pledging to act like Canadians and all. And hell, it's my blog, so I'm just going to point out how, especially after the Chinese offered up 1000+ young men all the same age and probably height hitting drums and whatnot at the same time, how non-uniform their performers are, all being some kind of celebrity/minority. The gayest Canadian, a black opera singer, a winning para-olympian, etc... Oh, hey, now they're hauling out the hockey players, eh. The torch design looks like a big ol' Swiss knife. Now we're waiting for, well, something. Aha. Technical difficulties. Good thing they have lots of music playing. Well, 3 of 4 ain't bad. Whoops. Still, it looks like they're lighting the edge of the ice on fire.
Let the curling begin!!!
Footnotes:
(also, I know I blogged about the chinese opening ceremonies, but can't for the life of me remember what I tagged it. So I'm going to guess pop culture. You'd think the olympics might deserve its own tag, but not so much.)
And the title - Dress in white, one said in quotations, from someone's wife, a famous writer in the 1920s. Pet Shop Boys.
I predicted setting the edge of the ice on fire in my sleep back in 1992. I talk in my sleep.
Oh good christ, they've let Biden out of the playpen. At least he used his power for good to get a meet-n-greet for his granddaughter with Shaun White. If they hadn't added snowboarding, I'm not sure what I'd even watch. Oh, jeez, he almost just said "we used to go to Canada to party back in college" but downplayed it at the last minute.
And I know it's probably cold and a little miserable for everyone, but watching from my couch in SoCal, I love that it's snowing on the winter olympics opening ceremony. That might be the best thing yet.
Hey the commentators just called it "hitting every note on the scale" where I called it being inclusive of people who might not be identical to the person sitting next to them. I guess it's progress that I didn't really remember to call out the fact that they featured lots of women (the commentators did). Well played, Canada!
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5 comments:
Your New York Times took it's fair shot at us too according to the National Post this morning...
I think it's that "envy" thing again. I'd much rather be here than there... even on the worst of days.
I thought you were never talking to me again. And I didn't take a shot at you or canada. I thought Canada was really good at presenting the best things about it and how utterly different it was from China. china was all about getting millions of people to be alike and Canada is all about individuals being their own selves and they're proud of them even if theirownselves are weird. I own many KD Lang CDs, I love her but she's still weird.
The technical difficulty wasn't even really that bad. They went on, the sculpture functioned fine with what did work, and I wish the us news would quit hammering on it and show someone other than Shaun from the opening ceremonies.
Meowm says she liked what she saw of the ceremonies. These things can be quite wonderful without using your tons of your population, or dumping tons of money into it. Every country is different and it is wonderful to see these differences!!!!!
My problem with the opening ceremonies (and I really did enjoy them for the most part) was that I was terribly distracted by that insipid Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado song. Every time I see Bryan Adams, I always remember the scene from the South Park movie where the Canadian officials say "our goverment has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions!" And then that's all I could think about all night.
I really only tuned in toward the end, then kinda-sorta live blogged from KD Lang on. It made me think of how my friends' weddings are all so specific to them.
West: too funny, I probably would have had that reaction with Brian Boitano. and thanks for pointing me at the jump feature. I updated the editor and it now lets me do the cut. (It doesn't cut out and back, but it's better than nothing particularly for random spew like liveblogging the aftermath of the opening ceremonies!)
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