Opening Ceremonies Thread

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i was watching the NBC broadcast and the announcers said that they didn't raise the cauldron in rehearsal. they didn't have to use the torch bearers for the sake of secrecy, but for the grand finale of the show that you've spend 6 years planning for, you should practice it a little bit

There are pictures of it raised at rehearsal

[killer_carlson]

I thought the Gozilla like snow bear was bad. It really had me uneasy. I thought Nelly Furtado lyp syncing was really bad as well.

But after they set my expectations so low, I actually loved the rest of it. Sarah McLachlin was the highlight, but KD Lang actually had me pumping my fist when she came out. That old gal can really sing.

I loved the orcas. Thought the falling leaves were great. Liked the fiddles. Wasn't sure if that kid who was going quarter section by quarter section through the praries was a boy or a girl but it was neat.

Jumped out of my chair when Haley Wickenheiser got to deliver the oath. I love everything she does for Team Canada. real proud moment.

I was legitimately impressed by the end. I actually watched it again on NBC to see their take. Joe Biden was pleased at the reception the American team got.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

I thought the Gozilla like snow bear was bad. It really had me uneasy. I thought Nelly Furtado lyp syncing was really bad as well.

But after they set my expectations so low, I actually loved the rest of it. Sarah McLachlin was the highlight, but KD Lang actually had me pumping my fist when she came out. That old gal can really sing.

I loved the orcas. Thought the falling leaves were great. Liked the fiddles. Wasn't sure if that kid who was going quarter section by quarter section through the praries was a boy or a girl but it was neat.

Jumped out of my chair when Haley Wickenheiser got to deliver the oath. I love everything she does for Team Canada. real proud moment.

I was legitimately impressed by the end. I actually watched it again on NBC to see their take. Joe Biden was pleased at the reception the American team got.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed KD Lang. I've never really listened to her music before, but I was impressed.

Actually, I agree with basically all of your sentiments about the opening ceremonies. My only other thoughts...

I was happy they had a moment of respect for Nodar.

I was surprised and kind of embarassed that drunken revellers were allowed to run alongside the truck that Wayne was riding in on the way to lighting the outdoor torch. Kinda bush-league, IMO.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by atb

Second best moment of the night behind KD Lang was Steve Nash's face during the mechanical failure.

It looked like somebody had gun pointed at Nash's head. Keep smiling or you a dead man.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Matata

To Vancouvers credit, those 60k people did the best 'minute of silence' I've ever heard. That, or they just turned the microphones off.

Devils Advocate: Jeff Buckley stated that Hallelujah is about the 'hallellujah of the orgasm'. Cohen has said that Buckley did the best version out of the billions of people who've covered that song. That theme also ties up all the verses and choruses pretty neatly, so I'm going with it.

That is not what he said the night Hallelujiah was inducted into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame when kd sang Hallelujiah for Cohen, who of course was in attendance. You can watch that performance on You Tube as well.

Cohen however is quite diplomatic when talking about performers who have covered this song. He has also said that he enjoys Rufus Wainwright's version, which I personally think is the worst cover ever.

[transplant99]

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed KD Lang. I've never really listened to her music before, but I was impressed.

She did a collaboration CD with Tony Bennet that is simply amazing. The girl can flat out sing.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

After reading lots of this thread, it's pretty clear that many of you people here WANT these games to fail just so you have another reason to bash Vancouver and to hang on to pride left by the 1988 games....that's just so sad...cant both games be spectacular?? Why do we have to compare and contrast?? Why not enjoy these games on their own.

I disagree. It's immensely enjoyable ridiculing snafus and deflating pomposity at Vancouver's expense.

[browna]

Still baffled on how little crowd control there was for Gretzky on his truck ride from BC Place down to the waterfront. One cop following behind, a guy in the truck to hold the second torch needed as the Flame only lasts 10-15 minutes per torch and 4 guys in the truck. That it.

Near the end, a couple more cops showed up, but that had potential for some real issues on a rainy dark evening. You had dolts running across the front of the truck, others running along the side no more then 6 ft from touching Gretzky. Especially considering the protestors who alterted the path of the torch earlier in the day, in the same downtown area...you figure some of them would've put down the tamborene and joint, wiped the hair out of their eyes, and figured a way to make thier "political" statement buy taking advantage of a lone Wayne Gretzky standing helplessly without much of an escort, in the back of a truck with the Flame, the entire eyes of the TV world on him.

It was a 10+ minute, 15 block drive...you'd think they could have the area a little more secured.

[Jetsfan]

I enjoyed the opening ceremonies.

However,

The girl who sang Oh Canada had a very thin voice. Our anthem came off sounding like a Broadway show tune.

Was our Govenor General asleep during most of the ceremony?

The screw up with the cauldron was embarrassing.

[FlamesAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by browna

Still baffled on how little crowd control there was for Gretzky on his truck ride from BC Place down to the waterfront. One cop following behind, a guy in the truck to hold the second torch needed as the Flame only lasts 10-15 minutes per torch and 4 guys in the truck. That it.

Near the end, a couple more cops showed up, but that had potential for some real issues on a rainy dark evening. You had dolts running across the front of the truck, others running along the side no more then 6 ft from touching Gretzky.

It was a 10+ minute, 15 block drive...you'd think they could have the area a little more secured.

That was painful to watch.

Gretzky standing in the back of a pickup truck driving across town to light another torch. No special Olympic vehicle... just fleet vehicle 3323. No special Olympic route... just downtown Vancouver with intersections fenced off. No special Olympic figures other than Gretzky... just random people running alongside the vehicle looking for that "Hi, Mom!" moment and increasing the likelyhood one falls and gets caught in one of the axles as they look at the camera while running in a different direction in order to get it.

I had to laugh though as I pictured Gretzky reaching East Hastings and having to crawl into the back of the truck as it accelerates to 80 to get through as quick as possible while gunfire is heard in the distance.

[Infamous1]

I thought the ceremony was pretty good. Being compared to Beijing is completely unfair considering the size of their budget compared to Vancouver. No ceremony will come close to Beijing for a very long time and this one being the one to follow hurt its chances to be looked upon favorably. Costas did say he thought that it was well done, and Brian Williams said it was one of the best Winter Olympic ceremonies he had seen.

As mentioned, the things I didnt like:

- The floating guy running in the Prairies? *yawn*

- The malfunction of the Cauldron. The whole ceremony was close to finishing and this is what we all waited for....to see who lights it....and this happens. /sigh Up until then it was all going smoothly and making BC Place look the way it did was quite the accomplishment because that Stadium is not very nice to look at.

- I was watching the Torch relay from work all week and it was fun watching the different people carry it with the secret service type of security surrounding them....and then we get the Wayner on the back of a pickup with next to no security around him. Unbelievable. Something EASILY could have happened to him out there in the pouring rain. Some drunk fool or a protester could have thrown something at him or tried to tackle him or something. Geez.....

Overall I thought it was heavy on the Native theme but I guess that was to be expected and overall they did a good job. If the malfunction didnt happen it would have been talked about as a great ceremony and now it's tainted a bit. They did a good job honoring the Georgian Athlete and that obviously changed the tone of the ceremony from an all out celebration/party to what it became.

All of you haters that just like to see the City of Vancouver fail.....no comment on your dancing Barneys in 88.....

[Aeneas]

I thought the opening was tremendous except for a very few things. can't please everyone.

I found the Gretzky thing uncomfortable and embarrassing. He looked uncomfortable. It seemed like it was just a spontaneous thing, "Hey I know, let's drive the torch around for a while."

Obviously they did a wonderful job planning the opening, the execution I found stunning. However it looked like not much planning went into the second cauldron lighting, very anticlimatic to watch the truck drive.

I felt bad for all involved that the torch lighting. I still didn't see who lit it, they were all standing around then suddenly it was lit. To have that biggest moment of the whole thing have a mechanical failure, and follow it up with the pick up truck...yikes.

Still, loved the first 95%.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Actually, it's a pretty stupid looking cauldron to begin with. The fact that it malfunctioned at least created some entertainment value.

Of course, being that it was well-known Calgarian and Flames fan Catriona Lemay Doan that was snubbed is an outrage.

[Eastern Girl]

I thought it was a bit of a let down. Not sure if my expectations were too high or what, but there were quite a few moments that had me cringing.

I liked Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, Sarah Maclachlin and KD Lang singing. I liked the word poet guy that talked about Canada and how great it is, I liked most of the imagery that appeared on the ground (the whales, the ice breaking up, etc). I liked the speeches. I liked the crowd reactions for Georgia and, of course, Canada. I liked seeing the famous Canadians carrying the Olympic flag in. I liked seeing Gretzky and the rest with the torches at the end.

I did not like the what seemed to be four hours worth of some little kid running and flying through wheat fields. Why was that so long? I didn't like the giant polar bear. I didn't like the girls rendition of O Canada. I didn't like the constant shots of the Governor General and Stephen Harper and his family. I didn't like seeing Gretzky looking horribly uncomfortable in the truck with what looked to be a bunch of drunkards running along side it. That was actually kind of embarrassing.

I have nothing against Vancouver, I just wasn't a huge fan of the opening ceremony. When they were presenting the native culture, it felt rather contrived to me.

[Pastiche]

I had very low expectations and they were thoroughly surpassed. I thought it was a really well done ceremony. The end there with Gretzky was a little too long though.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by Tensen

Thought the best part was when Gretzky stole the torch after the lighting ceremony, jumped into a white Bronco, and was slowly chased by the cops.

[Cowperson]

The DVR was invented for events like the Oscars and Olympic Opening Ceremonies and also like the Oscars, you have to know you need to tape the subsequent schedule as well because sure as shootin' it's going over the allotted time. Fortunately I did. If you hadn't the NBC feed would have ended just as Gretzy was staring at a non-functional icecicle from Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Loved those Orcas gliding across the floor. Loved the forest ballet.

Loved a lot of it actually so remember that while I point out the below . . . ..

The young lady singing the anthem has a wonderful voice and I know she was just doing what she was told but that was a completely blown national anthem . . . . . . not the moment to be experimenting with something the home crowd wouldn't recognize or know how to sing along with. You really needed Constable Whats-His-Name from the Ottawa Senators home games to come in and belt one out, set the crowd roarin' and give us a wink at the end. That was just a sad anthem.

A minor thing that bugged me was the RCMP constables not marching to the same step, left side swinging their arms up while the right side were swinging them down. Really, really, really trivial thing but . . . . . bugged me for some reason. You'd think those guys would know how to march.

At the start the confusion in the VIP area was apparently because aboriginal leaders hadn't arrived on time. How in heck does that happen?

Felt bad for whomever didn't get to light the torch at the end there. Bad moment for a gliche. NBC said they hadn't practiced raising but that's just ludicrous. Knowing this is Canada, we're only days away from naming a multi-million dollar Federal Inquiry to look into the circumstances of the failure.

Gretzky's Ride Through The Sleet probably wasn't what he had envisioned but he trooped through it. Like playing in St. Louis for a few months.

Great but at times ponderous opening ceremony - aren't they all? - but maybe they needed some chuckwagons racing around like Calgary's had to liven it up (just kidding).

Cowperson

[FanIn80]

Wow. I'm watching this clip of Gretzky driving around on a truck. Yeesh. This is tough to watch... what a typically moronic Vancouver moment.

Seriously, I have to turn this off. Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe it.

[stampsx2]

The wind machines for the flags didn't work, major torch malfunction, anybody on the street welcome to do whatever they wanted on national tv alongside Gretzky, front light was out on the courier etc..

Things well done: Nellie Furtado and Brian Adams performance.

Give it to Calgary next time, they know how to throw a party.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Wow. I'm watching this clip of Gretzky driving around on a truck. Yeesh. This is tough to watch... what a typically moronic Vancouver moment.

Seriously, I have to turn this off. Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe it.

All I can hope for now is that it was broadcast only in Canada.