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Old 02-13-2010, 01:23 PM   #1121
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. . . ..

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.


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Absolutely. How wonderful it would have been to hear that crowd sing our national anthem but no way that would ever happen with the version that she sung.

I really think that for such an auspicious occasion, the singer should be given the official, traditional version and say, sing this, no likey? we get someone else.
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Old 02-13-2010, 01:33 PM   #1122
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I thoroughly enjoyed the opening ceremonies, the cauldron lighting mess up was a bit of a buzz kill, but all in all a good job!

Pretty incredible transformation of the inside of BC place, that building is such a dump and they did a wicked job with creating a beautiful atmosphere.

Perhaps we can actually enjoy what the Olympics are actually about, the athletes, and not get so worked up about such minor things as Gretzky in a truck.
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Old 02-13-2010, 01:50 PM   #1123
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While I do agree that we should be embracing the spirit of the Olympics and the aspirations of the athletes from around the world, I can understand people getting upset at this opening ceremonies. It is supposed to introduce other countries around the world to Canada. It's supposed to represent the whole of Canada and share what makes this nation so great. Apparently, an androgynous child flying through wheat fields is representative of the pride we feel as a nation or what it is to be Canadian.

I didn't hate the opening ceremonies, but I certainly think it was rather contrived and there were some definite WTF moments. I suppose I just wanted to have a great kick off for the Olympics in Canada, and I don't really feel that happened. However, I will say that my disappointment in the opening ceremonies will not prevent me from enjoying all the events throughout the next couple weeks. I am really excited to see how we do this time around.
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Old 02-13-2010, 02:46 PM   #1124
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While I do agree that we should be embracing the spirit of the Olympics and the aspirations of the athletes from around the world, I can understand people getting upset at this opening ceremonies. It is supposed to introduce other countries around the world to Canada. It's supposed to represent the whole of Canada and share what makes this nation so great. Apparently, an androgynous child flying through wheat fields is representative of the pride we feel as a nation or what it is to be Canadian.

I didn't hate the opening ceremonies, but I certainly think it was rather contrived and there were some definite WTF moments. I suppose I just wanted to have a great kick off for the Olympics in Canada, and I don't really feel that happened. However, I will say that my disappointment in the opening ceremonies will not prevent me from enjoying all the events throughout the next couple weeks. I am really excited to see how we do this time around.

How would you have preferred they "introduce" Canada without showing a 30 min clip of all our landscapes? I found it to be artistic and creative and using only one of the acts (the wheat field) obviously isn't an accurate idea of our culture but as a whole all the acts painted a colourful and imaginative image of Canada and our culture and pride.
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Old 02-13-2010, 02:49 PM   #1125
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Someone said that the wheat fields bit was taken from an old book by W.O Mitchell that described the prairies beautifully. Just what I heard from someone, forget who...coulda dreamt it
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Old 02-13-2010, 03:00 PM   #1126
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Well that segment was TITLED "Who Has Seen the Wind" (title was at the bottom of the screen on CBC) so I assumed that it was based on the scene from the famous W.O. Mitchell novel. Based on my knowledge of the book, I knew the child was supposed to be a boy, but it's been two decades since I read the book so I couldn't remember more than that. I remember it was about a young boy growing up in the wheat fields of Saskatchewan, so I guess Mitchell was writing about what he knew.
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Old 02-13-2010, 03:12 PM   #1127
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Well that segment was TITLED "Who Has Seen the Wind" (title was at the bottom of the screen on CBC) so I assumed that it was based on the scene from the famous W.O. Mitchell novel.
It was. The part Sutherland narrarated was out of the book. The intent was to describe what the boy saw while exploring the city/province. It was suppose to be a tribute to the writer and Saskachewan's description in the ceremonies...goes to show how exciting Saskachewan is...

(Was born in Sask)
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Old 02-13-2010, 03:39 PM   #1128
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..... It is supposed to introduce other countries around the world to Canada. It's supposed to represent the whole of Canada and share what makes this nation so great......

I didn't hate the opening ceremonies, but I certainly think it was rather contrived and there were some definite WTF moments. I suppose I just wanted to have a great kick off for the Olympics in Canada, and I don't really feel that happened. However, I will say that my disappointment in the opening ceremonies will not prevent me from enjoying all the events throughout the next couple weeks. I am really excited to see how we do this time around.
Agree 100%.

It should show, who makes up Canada, why we are different from the rest of the world, how we got to where we are and what makes our country the best place in the world to live in. The ceremonies failed to show that.

How should they have showed it? Pay me the $15 an hour they got paid or whatever it was and I will come up with something much much better and much much more complete.
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Old 02-13-2010, 03:45 PM   #1129
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^ Well our history has aboriginal peoples, nature, wheat fields, whales, maple leaves, music, dance, poetry and art. How would you describe Canada to someone else?

Also, don't a LOT of the athletes train in Canada already anyways? I know many NZ athletes do.
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Old 02-13-2010, 03:45 PM   #1130
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I think everyone is taking this thread way too seriously. As someone in the thread noted... I think Captaincrunch... "It was like an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000." It was just a bunch of unrefined guys poking fun at the artsy fartsy. The best quote IMHO was:

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The Devil apparently arrives in a canoe...good to know for the Rapture...
Lighten up people, it was all in good fun, and one of the only fun threads on here in recent memory.
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Old 02-13-2010, 05:50 PM   #1131
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How would you have preferred they "introduce" Canada without showing a 30 min clip of all our landscapes? I found it to be artistic and creative and using only one of the acts (the wheat field) obviously isn't an accurate idea of our culture but as a whole all the acts painted a colourful and imaginative image of Canada and our culture and pride.
I'm glad you think so. I disagree. I'm not sure what I would suggest, but that is why I don't put these types of shows together. I like that they incorporated Native culture into the presentation, but I also feel like a lot of it felt rather contrived. It was like they were trying to so brutally hard to be deep and thoughtful. I just didn't like it. You did, great.

If the wheat field deal was from a famous book or something, then fine, but seriously, it was about five minutes of this kid spinning around or running while on a harness. It was boring. If others got something out of it, great, but I think it was cringeworthy.

And as a last note, I don't think I am taking it too seriously. The thread is to discuss the opening ceremonies. I've given my opinion on it. I am not sitting here crying or planning to boycott the rest of the events or anything like that. It can be a fun thread even if people disagree.
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Old 02-13-2010, 06:00 PM   #1132
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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.
I couldn't agree with you more - this was colossally disappointing to me. If ever there was a time where I was REALLY REALLY looking forward to the performance of our national anthem, this was it, and the directors/producers/performer/whomever completely blew it. That was horrible. A huge pet peeve of mine is when singers try to make the national anthem 'their own'. It is not yours. It is all of ours.

All we needed was someone to go out and sing it 'as normal'. That would be have been 5000x better. I wonder what the people involved in these debacles think beforehand. What is the best case scenario here? That people don't hate the performance? Yeesh.
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Old 02-13-2010, 06:20 PM   #1133
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the guy in the canoe, according to the NBC coverage, was based upon a quebecois legend about a bewitched canoe, and was a guy who was fighting his shadow by way of a fiddle fight.
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Old 02-13-2010, 06:45 PM   #1134
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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.
If you think about it for a moment, something might occur to you...

(Hint:They were perfectly in step)
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Old 02-13-2010, 10:08 PM   #1135
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the guy in the canoe, according to the NBC coverage, was based upon a quebecois legend about a bewitched canoe, and was a guy who was fighting his shadow by way of a fiddle fight.

It's an extremely well known folk tale in Quebec, I remember being read it in kindergarten. Every kid knew it.
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Old 02-13-2010, 10:58 PM   #1136
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It's an extremely well known folk tale in Quebec, I remember being read it in kindergarten. Every kid knew it.
And everyone who's drank a bottle of Maudite should know it, too.

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Old 02-14-2010, 12:03 AM   #1137
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the guy in the canoe, according to the NBC coverage, was based upon a quebecois legend about a bewitched canoe, and was a guy who was fighting his shadow by way of a fiddle fight.
The rest of Canada has a similar story based on a one legged Lucien Bouchard trying to break up the country.
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Old 02-15-2010, 03:00 PM   #1138
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Apparently, there was not enough French in the opening ceremonies.
http://home.mytelus.com/telusen/port...CatID=National
You just can't please everyone, I guess.
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Old 02-15-2010, 06:44 PM   #1139
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I couldn't agree with you more - this was colossally disappointing to me. If ever there was a time where I was REALLY REALLY looking forward to the performance of our national anthem, this was it, and the directors/producers/performer/whomever completely blew it. That was horrible. A huge pet peeve of mine is when singers try to make the national anthem 'their own'. It is not yours. It is all of ours.

All we needed was someone to go out and sing it 'as normal'. That would be have been 5000x better. I wonder what the people involved in these debacles think beforehand. What is the best case scenario here? That people don't hate the performance? Yeesh.
That's it right there. I get so unbelievably annoyed when people think it's cool to muck with it. Our anthem is amazing just as it is. Take pride in your country and yourself and just sing it like it's meant to be sung.
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Old 02-15-2010, 06:47 PM   #1140
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Apparently, there was not enough French in the opening ceremonies.
http://home.mytelus.com/telusen/port...CatID=National
You just can't please everyone, I guess.
Seriously? I thought there was too much French during the opening ceremonies to be honest. It just seems like they are never going to be happy with their representation. But then again, I hate the French....
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