<p>Oh, and I absolutely loved Sarah Brightman singing in Mandarin.
Don’t you think there should be no fighting in the world for the next 16 days…
How sad it is to hear about Russia and Georgia…</p>
<p>I’m watching it now. Wow, just wow. The little girl sings so beautifully! And did you see President Bush casually chatting with Mr. Putin in the stands? It looked like Laura told them something along the lines “Shhh, guys, let’s watch! You can talk later” :)</p>
<p>And what were they talking about?
Olympics or Georgia?</p>
<p>I am schocked by the number of countries I was not even aware existed…</p>
<p>For those who didn’t get the ‘lovely’ narration (although NBC wasn’t half bad in my opinion), a nice part. When the Chinese representatives came out, a little boy walks next to the flagbearer- a boy who survived the earthquake in Sichuan (20 out of 30 classmates died), and freed himself from the rubble- went back to save 2 more classmates. When asked why he did it, he said something like ‘I’m a hall monitor. This is my responsibility’. Just a nice tribute to the 70,000+ (?) that died.</p>
<p>The final torchbearer…whoa.</p>
<p>Agree! What an amazing feat!! Some stats: 30,000+ fireworks and they tried to have (I think they did have) 2008 performers for most of the performances.</p>
<p>P.S. Will stop practically spamming this thread now XD- just excited.</p>
<p>Followed by the fireworks - Wow - even the commentators were silenced for few moments.</p>
<p>The thought crossed my mind as I watched the amazing fireworks - did they just undo all the work progress they have been made reducing the pollution? God I’m getting old and cynical.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine any Opening ceremonies in my lifetime topping this year’s!</p>
<p>I’ve looked through the various TV channels and can’t find the swimming heats which are going on right now. I checked out the live video streaming through nbcolympics.com and they don’t have swimming. They also make no effort to remain spoiler free so be forewarned if you’re going there to figure out when something is being broadcast. I’d love to watch all the swimming, not just the prime time package.</p>
<p>electronblue, try this:</p>
<p>[CBC</a> Olympics | Live Video](<a href=“http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/livevideo/#n=cbcsports_ca_4&p=swimming&e=mens_400m_freestyle_and_womens_100m_butterfly_heats&dt=2008/08/09_06:30%20AM&s=http://authmfile.akamai.com.edgesuite.net/akamai.stream.auth/35018/wm/cbcwm.gen/v001/reflector:13377.js]CBC”>http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/livevideo/#n=cbcsports_ca_4&p=swimming&e=mens_400m_freestyle_and_womens_100m_butterfly_heats&dt=2008/08/09_06:30%20AM&s=http://authmfile.akamai.com.edgesuite.net/akamai.stream.auth/35018/wm/cbcwm.gen/v001/reflector:13377.js)</p>
<p>That looks like a much better source but it says video is unavailable in my area. Are you in Canada? Is there a way to make that work in the states?</p>
<p>I have really enjoyed the opening ceremony. It is good that the Chinese were focusing on the positive and not on the “years of humiliation” in response to their foreign critics.</p>
<p>While the ceremony is the best I have seen, my focus was more on the torch bearers and the flag bearers. I thought it was a good gesture that they include a lot of former stars who never had the chance to be in the Olympic games.</p>
<p>Among the flag bearers, I caught the names of Zhang Shilin in table tennis, Yang Yang in speed skating, Li Lingwei in badminton. Does anyone catch the other five? I would love to find out.</p>
<p>I was hoping that Zhuang Zhedong, three times world champion and two times Chinese athlete of the year, would be given a place to show that he was forgiven by the authorities. It did not happen. The Chinese have long memories.</p>
<p>electronblue, yes, sorry, I am in Canada. I was worried that it might not work for you. Same in reverse, NBC won’t work here!</p>
<p>Women’s soccer- Terrific first half ends in a 1-1 tie between Canada and China. The Canadian girls totally outplaying them, playing well, and not being intimidated by 60,000 very vocal Chinese fans.</p>
<p>Glad I got to see the torch lighting on grainy webvideo ysterday-- I got home to watch it and promptly fell asleep!!</p>
<p>Amazing ceremony. Now for the important details: the clothes. Loved the ethnic stuff. It’s so colorful and unique and exotic, and let’s face it, in the 21st century exoticism is hard to come by. But the ‘western wear’ - hmmm… this Project Runway fan auffed the Hungarians (the red-spotted 80’s style dress-for-success ladies suits were a disaster.) The Americans looked chic but overdressed and probably really hot. Missed the French, bummer. The Latvians with their neon-blue-and-yellow suits looked like canaries. Sorry, you’re out. The Polish women had chic summer dresses and they’re the only ones who looked comfortable in that heat. The Aussies looked casual and like they’re having tons of fun. The Swedes had chic little witchy outfits I liked that incorporated the Latvians’ colors but to a dramatically better effect.
The fashion review is over. </p>
<p>Regular sports programming may now resume ;)</p>
<p>I was awed by the Opening ceremony…if you only saw one in your life, that must have been it.</p>
<p>How will we outdo that one in 2016?</p>
<p>^^^ We won’t. The best anyone could hope for would be to equal it. I don’t think it could be outdone. Amazing, beautiful - but TASTEFUL. Everything seemed to be done for it’s own artistic merit or to showcase something about these particular games (2008 drummers, etc). Nothing seemed to be done to say, “Ha, top this!” Just lovely.</p>
<p>I still think the white-outfitted cheerleader-types were dumb. That would be the only room for improvement.</p>
<p>Also, and I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I didn’t like the way the guy who lit the torch was running on the giant screen.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I was disappointed with the French, who are normally so stylish. This time they wore a rather uninspired gray outfit.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay, I did not like the cheerleaders either. They looked like some cutsey girls from anime books, and their dancing was pure torchure!
I liked team outfits that incoporated ethnic motifs! Our guys looked classy, but somewhat bland in their suites. I liked the tops that the Swedish women wore: Chinese-style, but in the colors of the Swedish flag! And did you see the olympic rings on the head of the guy who carried the German flag? Ewww…</p>