Friday, August 13, 2004
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens are officially underway. Thanks to my current jobless status, and the fact that Comcast here carries the CBC in their channel lineups, I was able to watch the opening ceremonies live. Coverage on the CBC was handled by Brian Williams and Peter Mansbridge, who did a solid job. Williams did an interview with Athens' female mayor, Dora Bakoyannis, who has dealt with the security concerns, and all the turmoil involving the unsureness of the Games, and her husband's assassination. She's the first female mayor in the 3000 or so years of the existence of Athens. You probably won't see that interview on NBC. If you do, it won't be with Brian Williams. Anyway...
A few short facts about the ceremony, for those at work or those planning to watch on NBC tonight...
-- The rhythmic display at the beginning was quite a way to start it, and that's not only because I like drums.
-- There's a lot of theatrical-type performance art kind of stuff. Lots of airborne dancers suspended by strings.
-- There was a parade depicting ancient pictographs coming to life, and quite frankly, whoever did the makeup was amazing, because I did look twice at some of the people, who actually did look like they were standing still.
-- 3000 years of Greek civilization were shown in different forms in the aforementioned parade.
-- The Parade of Nations is probably the only parade I will ever sit through. A total of 202 flags have athletes competing under them in this Olympics.
-- I flipped around the channels and I'm pretty sure none of the NBC family of networks that are carrying the Olympics (NBC/Bravo/CNBC/MSNBC) were carrying the opening ceremonies live. I know it's not competition, but still...
-- CBC, who lets the Olympics basically take over the network until the 29th didn't manage to show all the 202 nations. Expect NBC to show even less of the parade.
-- From the blimps and inside, the stadium looks pretty cool.
-- Bjork is not Greek. She's Icelandic. But you knew that.
-- The lady that ran the Athens organizing committee looks kind of like former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, except with much better makeup.
-- The word "doping" was mentioned in the ceremony itself twice, during Jacques Rogge's speech, and during the recitation of the Olympic athletes' oath.
-- Unfortunately, the athlete that most of Greece was expecting to light the torch did not do so. Why? The male sprinter (medal favorite) and another female Greek athlete missed a drug test. Missing a drug test, regardless of outcome, is enough to get thrown out of the Games.
-- The torch looks like a big long expensive pen. It dropped down to take the flame from the final torchbearer. In my opinion, it wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as the archer who show the arrow to light the cauldron in Barcelona in 1992, or Cathy Freeman's lighting of that bitchin' water/torch thing in Sydney four years ago.
-- I'm not sure how many of you saw any of the NHL playoff coverage when the Calgary Flames were playing at the Saddledome. During some timeouts, they'd use the arena-encircling color boards (a.k.a. the Power Ring) to show a streak of flames/fire which quickly encircled the arena. Some of the fireworks they set off outside the stadium in Athens (abbreviated the OAKA) are set off in this quick fashion.
That's about all I can remember for now without totally giving it all away. Well, maybe I did. Oh well.
Good luck to the sisters Kirk.
Enjoy the Games, all.
A few short facts about the ceremony, for those at work or those planning to watch on NBC tonight...
-- The rhythmic display at the beginning was quite a way to start it, and that's not only because I like drums.
-- There's a lot of theatrical-type performance art kind of stuff. Lots of airborne dancers suspended by strings.
-- There was a parade depicting ancient pictographs coming to life, and quite frankly, whoever did the makeup was amazing, because I did look twice at some of the people, who actually did look like they were standing still.
-- 3000 years of Greek civilization were shown in different forms in the aforementioned parade.
-- The Parade of Nations is probably the only parade I will ever sit through. A total of 202 flags have athletes competing under them in this Olympics.
-- I flipped around the channels and I'm pretty sure none of the NBC family of networks that are carrying the Olympics (NBC/Bravo/CNBC/MSNBC) were carrying the opening ceremonies live. I know it's not competition, but still...
-- CBC, who lets the Olympics basically take over the network until the 29th didn't manage to show all the 202 nations. Expect NBC to show even less of the parade.
-- From the blimps and inside, the stadium looks pretty cool.
-- Bjork is not Greek. She's Icelandic. But you knew that.
-- The lady that ran the Athens organizing committee looks kind of like former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, except with much better makeup.
-- The word "doping" was mentioned in the ceremony itself twice, during Jacques Rogge's speech, and during the recitation of the Olympic athletes' oath.
-- Unfortunately, the athlete that most of Greece was expecting to light the torch did not do so. Why? The male sprinter (medal favorite) and another female Greek athlete missed a drug test. Missing a drug test, regardless of outcome, is enough to get thrown out of the Games.
-- The torch looks like a big long expensive pen. It dropped down to take the flame from the final torchbearer. In my opinion, it wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as the archer who show the arrow to light the cauldron in Barcelona in 1992, or Cathy Freeman's lighting of that bitchin' water/torch thing in Sydney four years ago.
-- I'm not sure how many of you saw any of the NHL playoff coverage when the Calgary Flames were playing at the Saddledome. During some timeouts, they'd use the arena-encircling color boards (a.k.a. the Power Ring) to show a streak of flames/fire which quickly encircled the arena. Some of the fireworks they set off outside the stadium in Athens (abbreviated the OAKA) are set off in this quick fashion.
That's about all I can remember for now without totally giving it all away. Well, maybe I did. Oh well.
Good luck to the sisters Kirk.
Enjoy the Games, all.
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