Originally Posted by Yaridovich
Wow and here's me wondering why the USA acquires a reputation for arrogance in sport... :rolleyes2 - not that France is much better on that score (or the UK for that matter)
"Excuse me Miss, do you like pineapple?"
Oh, come on.Wow and here's me wondering why the USA acquires a reputation for arrogance in sport... :rolleyes2 - not that France is much better on that score (or the UK for that matter)The French Captain says that his team is going to "smash" the Americans, because "that's what we came here to do." He's the anchor for the relay, and is given a full body-length lead when he dives into the water. The US's final guy, probably their 3rd best swimmer, a guy in his 30s, swims the French Captain down in the last quarter of his leg to win by a tenth of a second? You can't beat that.
I watched a bit of the women Hockey and Archery, but I got bored and turned over. Team GB aren't doing too bad.
I think I'll go down to London to watch the 2012 Olympics~
Last edited by Zeldy; 08-11-2008 at 04:03 PM.
I don't think youtube can do it justice. Youtube videos are just so teeny tiny and the Opening Ceremonies was just so huge and grand.
I watched it on a HD plasma and it was just tremendous.
And yay, go South Korea! *waves a flag*
I thought the first half of the opening ceremony was really good, but that's probably mostly because of Zhang Yimou's involvement. The second half of it was pretty meh imo, but I must admit that the giant globe with people running all over it was impressive.
As for the sports.. I dig watching them. I always just watch random sports whenever the Olympics are happening. My favourites are Tennis, Gymnastics, Handball and such, though.. but honestly, I watch a bit of everything.
"Oh god, nationalism! Kill them now! Kill them now!"Wow and here's me wondering why the USA acquires a reputation for arrogance in sport... :rolleyes2 - not that France is much better on that score (or the UK for that matter)
:rolleyes2
I respectfully disagree.Oh, come on.
USA! USA! USA! USA!Wow and here's me wondering why the USA acquires a reputation for arrogance in sport... :rolleyes2 - not that France is much better on that score (or the UK for that matter)
HEY HEY HEY! Just yesterday you were all ready to go "[fanatic]OMG BEST UPSET EVR IN AMERICA OLYMPICS[/fanatic]" Until I was all like "Russia V. USA Hockey plox"I respectfully disagree.Oh, come on.
EDIT: There is no way the Chinese Olympic Gymnastic Team has even hit Puberty. Seriously.
Yes but that's just 'cause you said "Lolol Lekana missed the race." We had to make it seem like she missed something BIG.
Also, if I remember correctly, I brought up the hockey thankyouverymuchg'bye.
BUT I EMPHASIZED ITS IMPORTANCE >:0
We watched the opening ceremonies over 1 hour periods over the weekend and finally finished them yesterday afternoon, so my thoughts are a little behind the times. xD
- The drumming overall was alright, although the precision of doing the count-down was jaw-dropping. I'm sure there's some cultural significance to the drumming portion, but it didn't do much for me. I did love the fact that they told the drummers to smile while they drummed so the viewers, i.e. whitey, wouldn't get scared. xD
- The human calligraphy was sweet. Not much more I can say other than it was one of the highlights for me.
- The tiles section was alright. I enjoyed the character(s) being made out of the waves but it seemed a little long.
- The children in the different ethnic outfits was a nice way to bring the Chinese flag in, until I learned it was extremely revisionist. See the quote/link below for how sad that really was.
- I didn't like the military raising the flags. In the middle of an opening ceremony for games that are supposed to be focused on humanity coming together it felt like China was saying, "Yeah, we have a record of violating human rights, ethnic cleansing an a whole lot of other issues. What are you going to do about it?"
- Yao and the kid where simply awesome. It made me happy to see Yao interacting with the kid later once they were done with their entrance as the kid wasn't a prop for Yao.
- People running around the giant globe, some horizontally. How much more awesome does it get than that?
I really despised NBC's commentary on the opening ceremony. I don't know if they had Chinese military behind them with M-16's but they sounded very canned like they were reading from a script and they certainly painted a revisionist view of Chinese history to put China in a good light.
I also thought this point from an opinion column I read was interesting:
Here's a link to the column: Katherine Goldstein: Hook, Line, and Sinker: NBC Swallows Opening Ceremonies PropagandaThe first major red flag that this was going to be a propaganda exercise of massive portions was when the government paraded a group of Han Chinese children through the Bird's Nest dressed in the garb of the nation's 54 minority groups -- as a effort to "celebrate" the diversity of China. How inclusive! Except for the fact that the government either exoticizes these groups for tourist purposes while they remain poor, second-class citizens, or create conscious programs to aggressively assimilate these groups out of existence, particularly in politically hostile regions like Tibet and Xinjiang. An equivalent in America would be if the government got a group of white kids from Manhattan together and dressed them up as members of Native American tribes and paraded them around as example of how respectful we are towards the "native peoples."
That was so embarrassing. All of the other world leaders are at least feigning interest and talking with each other while Bush is acting like a six year-old in church waiting impatiently for the service to be over so he can go out and play.
On the Iraq bit, that was another point where I was annoyed with the NBC commentary. They were talking about how Iraq almost didn't have an Olympic team because the government disbanded and with no government the IOC couldn't recognize them as a country and allow them to participate. Like they had a choice and weren't invaded in a war. For the Iraqi people to lose the ability to send a team to the Olympics because of President Bush's actions would have been very disappointing and inexcusable. Thankfully they were able to join the Olympics.
Good, I'm not the only one that did that! xD
When they mentioned that Ralph Lauren designed the US uniforms I wondered what they would look like. When the US team entered I was severely disappointed as it looked like a Ralph Lauren add photographed on an affluent east coast boat dock/marina. It felt extremely corporate and capitalistic rather than focusing on aesthetics, the athletes and the games.
Overall, I think the fact that minimal technology and maximum human ingenuity were used to create most of the effects seen at the opening ceremony is was made this opening so special.
HOLY BALLS I'M LATE TO THE PARTY, BUT THAT WAS AMAZING!!! SERIOUSLY FRANCE DESERVED THAT after all of their trash-talking. I thought it was funny when their anchor couldn't even leave the pool.
USA! USA! USA!
That is actually not too far off. China is censoring the games heavily and many foreigners can't even access various sites on the Internet because of its censorship.
Yeah. How about during the Gymnastics? "I'm sure everyone who's ever looked at a college campus has seen people that they thought didn't look college age." xDThat is actually not too far off. China is censoring the games heavily and many foreigners can't even access various sites on the Internet because of its censorship.
Amen. That was smurfing incredible!
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