Olympic fever

[senorcorazon]

the logo for the London summer games isn't making me that excited for 2012 either

That's because you're not taking the ecstasy that comes with the logo.

I loved that in Children of Men they had a character walking around in an old ratty t-shirt from the 2012 Games.

[jbissell]

I'll probably check out the opening ceremonies and maybe some basketball, but that's probably about it. I'm sure I'll accidentally end up watching some other events since NBC is going to have it on like 40 channels non-stop.

[gravy boat]

I agree with both of Gilly's points. 
Cut the Horatio Alger backstories, and it is nice to wake up at 5am and see high-stakes sports.

(I always skip opening and closing ceremonies. They remind me too much of Super Bowl halftime shows.)

[Gilly]

it is nice to wake up go to bed at 5am and see after seeing high-stakes sports.

[jamesp]

Anybody else feel sorry for the people that live in Beijing who are being kicked out of their homes for the event?

Here's a good article from today's NY Times about how China commissioned Zhang Yimou to oversee the ceremony? It sounds like he's basically become a huge sell-out to the Communist rulers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/sports/olympics/08guru.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Zhang%20Yimou&st=cse&oref=slogin

[jbissell]

I ended up watching some of the opening ceremony and they had some pretty cool moments.

[Gilly]

Yeah that end was pretty cool. Sure wish they didn't feel the need to commentate everything though.

[Steeley Chris]

Sure wish they didn't feel the need to commentate everything though.

"I'm not even going to try to touch that name."
 

Shut up.

Those commentators stunk.

[John Junk 2.0]

I'm watching the ceremony now.  It's totally mind-bottling.

Gets pretty corny at the end, though, what with all the children.  I always hate that "The Children Are the Futre" shit.  Like "The children are going to have to fix global warming!"  No they're not.  It's too late.  The children are going to have to move out of coastal cities as they flood.  They're going to have to form post-apocalyptic gangs or some shit, but they don't have to fix the shit that we already blew the opportunity to fix. 

[erika]

I ended up watching some of the opening ceremony and they had some pretty cool moments.

I thought it was amazing. The human precision was like nothing I've ever seen before. That LED screen was a bit much, but still really freaking cool.

[Gilly]

NBC has all of the games streaming. No commentary! You have to install Microsoft Silverlight though.

[Martin]

I enjoyed the opening ceremony. I will probably watch as much as I can, but with the time diff that might not be that much.

[Sarah]

I watched a few minutes of the opening ceremony and thought the combination of protestations of "you're our friends," "harmony," "the wall is coming down," etc., with the display of a terrifying ability to get masses of people to work coglike in unison was a tad disconcerting.

[<<<<<]

I GOT IT.


Uh, oh, that passed.  *phew*
Pretty intense for a minute there. 

[jbissell]

I watched a few minutes of the opening ceremony and thought the combination of protestations of "you're our friends," "harmony," "the wall is coming down," etc., with the display of a terrifying ability to get masses of people to work coglike in unison was a tad disconcerting.

Yeah, they kept mentioning during the lightbox drumming thing that they had to tell the drummers to smile so they wouldn't look so intimidating.