OLYMPICS Opening Ceremony summary

Here in Mexico they showed the Opening Ceremony live.  I believe NBC in the states is playing it later during prime time, so I thought I'd give a  quick play-by-play, as it's 3 1/2 hours long.

I highly recommend watching the beginning and end.  Also, the statium is fantastic. Very modern design with swooping curves along the upper edges and well lit through out.  It's huge.

Start of the ceremony was the absolute best part. It is a surreal piece with theatrical sets of people moving around the track, while people are swooping in the air above them interacting with them.  Very much like a type of puppet show with choreographed humans playing the parts.  Incredible visuals, outfits, and movement. It seemed like a walk thru the history of empires (Egpytian, Greek, Roman).

The center of the stadium was like a large wading pool, with people playing and walking through it. It eventually centered on a pregnant woman whose stomach started to eerily glow.

Very impressive light & smoke show that was incredibly 3 dimensional. Lots of fireworks shooting out of the top of stadium. They eventually lower a Tree of Life onto white pieces to resemble a hill.  This tree seems to be the "theme" image.  

Entrance of every country's team.  It's in order by Greek alphabet.  V's are in the B's... F was near the end.  Greek team last then a separate loop of their flag.   This part took forEVER and I only caught bits and pieces. Water that was in the middle was drained right before this so the teams could gather there.

After the Walk of Nations, Bjork sings while a fog of fabric envelopes the athletes in the middle.  Not nearly as cool as I thought it'd be.  Even via video, it felt like you were watching a Bjork arena show from the back seats.

Speeches by president of the Greece organizers and the president of Olympic committee.  

Olympic Flag makes it's way around.

Torch lighting.  First they go around the track, passing it to 3-4 people in stages.  Then it goes back to the first guy who goes up the center aisle thru the athletes and walks up a white staircase to nowhere.  The primary torch is amazing. It's at one end of the stadium, and is collapsable.  While he was running up, it was lowering itself to the top of the staircase.  Once lit, it raised back up.  Very nice visuals there again, with the flame and the red-light inside of the stadium behind it.

Fini.  Lots and lots of fireworks shooting out of the top of stadium again.  

Tivo it and fast forward through the Nation Walk and the speeches and it'll be a great show. [edited as I forgot the water part]

•  tips

  are you watching 'em?

  there were a lot of "peace" overtones.  i think there is a definite subtle message for the US here.

  by muji on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 06:55:37 PM PDT

  •  U.S. Entrance

    What was your assessment of the reaction to the entrance of the U.S. athletes.  Someone else described it as polite with a few whistles*.

    * international language for "boo"

    by CA Pol Junkie on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:10:54 PM PDT

•  I love the nation walk. I like to hear crowd

  reactions and lern something about the athletes.

  By the way, I live in Buffalo and caught the Canadian broadcast.

  by upstate NY on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:03:35 PM PDT

  •  Crowd reaction

    I was surprised at the reactions too. The US got a polite one -- subdued, to quote CBC's anchor Peter Mansbridge.

    Another big contrast: Israel got the silent treatment, while Palestine got a much louder cheer. The Turks got a few whistles here and there. The big winners were the Afghani and Iraqi delegations who received loud cheers.

    by ClaudeB on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:10:50 PM PDT

    •  augh

      i wish i got the CBC full time!

      i loved watching their coverage of the Canadian elections!

      plus, i would love CBC radio... if only for 'as it happens'

      by brandonp on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:20:32 PM PDT

  •  walk of nations

    I liked it too, it's just incredibly long to sit through so I only caught portions of it since I was supposed to be working.  

    It is fun to see the size of the national teams and such.  US was a huge stream of people, along with Australia, China, Russia, Canada and Greece.  

    However it's the little ones that are the greatest.  You can easily see the pride in their faces when it is only a handful of people.

    by muji on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:11:31 PM PDT

•  aoeu

  So how far in do we get to see the fake nude men?

  Just curious.

  by TealVeal on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:22:24 PM PDT

  •  First hour

    During the historical part of the show.

    by ClaudeB on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:27:47 PM PDT

  •  costumes

    all the costumes were really lavish at the very beginning so it had to be there.  however those fake naked men weren't in the footage broadcast here in Mexico...

    by muji on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:27:51 PM PDT

  •  Naked Folks

    My estimate would be about 45 minutes.

    by Flora on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 07:28:38 PM PDT

  •  The segment starts at 38 minutes.

    n/t

    by ClaudeB on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 08:47:07 PM PDT

    •  aoeu

      What a let down. lol

      by TealVeal on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 09:55:04 PM PDT

•  so did the US dip the flag?

  so did the US dip the flag or not?

  by zeke L on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 08:48:07 PM PDT

•  aoeu

  The NBC TV schedule search mechanism SUCKS.  Why won't they let you just get a complete schedule by sport?

  by TealVeal on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 09:40:31 PM PDT

  •  Try this one.

    Not very detailed, but I think it gives you dates and times.

    http://nbcolympics.zap2it.com/tv/search.jsp

    by sixthdoctor on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 09:56:48 PM PDT

  •  Could NBC do a worse job?

    NBC is as bad as ever. They conveniently skipped over a lot of the opening ceremony with very wide shots or very tight shots, I guess so you couldn't see the prosthetic weenies. The way they moved the camera around interfered with the narrative of the ceremony. And of course the gabbing won't stop. Katie Couric must like hearing her own voice.

    And for some weird reason they decided to run ice skating from the 2002 Winter Olympics on HDTV for the first hour. I'm not sure why they felt a need to run the HDTV Olympics an hour behind the other channel. At least I don't have to listen to Couric.

    God I hate American network coverage.

    by puppethead on Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 10:11:59 PM PDT