Watching the Olympics opening...

[Feathered_IV]

Hehe, the Brits just dumped a load of Window on the stadium. :p

[kristorf]

Anyone else notice that fella doing a weak Nazi 'salute' (with his left arm) when the German team entered the arena????

[Tavingon]

Anyone else notice that fella doing a weak Nazi 'salute' (with his left arm) when the German team entered the arena????

I saw that! I grimaced when I saw 'churchill' smile and wave at the helecopter as well.

[Feathered_IV]

The RAF training bicycles were a nice touch too.

[Ze-Jamz]

I was waiting for the mosques to come out the ground

[ATAG_Dutch]

As those sort of things go I thought it was good.

The huge puppets were a big hats off to Pink Floyd, ditto the pig flying over Battersea Power Station, ditto the closing song from Dark Side at the finale.

Pity they had to wheel out Macca once more though. That spoiled it for me.

And yes I saw the left handed 'wave' too. :)

[furbs]

So im not the only one who thought it was a little embarrassing then?

[klem]

I think it was a good idea to get away from the unsustainable "my Wow! is bigger than your Wow!". There was no way of upstaging the Beijing opening ceremony without bankruptiung us.... errmmm.... wait a mo'....

I enjoyed it and thought it was very revealing of the British psyche. There were moments of brilliance, moments of "what?" (if you're not a Brit) and moments where it was almost Heath Robinson in appearance which is, after all, a little of what we are. We've had a 'make do and mend' culture for years... the legacy of two world wars. The faintly political inclusion of a tribute the NHS was entertaining and ok (possibly one of those "What?" moments for some) and pointed to our social conscience while Mr Bean and our parachuting Queen pointed to that famous British sense of humour (again possibly a "What?" moment). Multiculture was addressed. The crowd cheered periodically in enthusiastic support - even of the speeches which we often find embarrasing (Churchill etc excluded) - and a good time was had by all.

I hope everyone understood the "this is what we are, this is where we came from and, like the rest of the world, this is where we're going" explanation of our culture and hopefully got the humour. At least now if you come here to live you know what's expected of you when you go through that immigration processing :)

I liked the tribute to Sir Tim Berners-Lee as the inventor of the WWW (although certain cultures like those with a dead president who was claimed to have made 11 holes in one on a single round of golf may have already made that claim for him).

Now with stiff upper lip we look forward to the medals which we will accept with great patriotism and of those we don't win we will say "it's the taking part" and quietly look to see if doping was involved. But there wasn't, we just weren't good enough at the high dive volley ball juggling with triple flip and spear throw which, after all, is not one of our national sports. But we will try to do better next time.

Bring it on!

[ATAG_Dutch]

So im not the only one who thought it was a little embarrassing then?

I think those kind of shows are always embarassing to a degree. Go to any Andrew Lloyd Webber show and you're guaranteed to be squirming in your seat from the off.

'The Six Wives of Henry VIII on Ice' and the like are particularly cringeworthy kinds of show. Not that I'd ever buy a ticket myself. :)

The bit with the two kids on the pull by text was crap though, and went on far too long.

On the other hand, opening the show with Elgar's Nimrod was a brilliant choice. I suppose there was something in there for everyone, but conversely there was something to make everyone cringe too.

But all in all it was an entertaining show.

[senseispcc]

.
Anyone did see the cyclist pacifist protester been violently arrested outside the stadium? No? How strange? Should the media be one sided?
But this is a COD forum and COD is a wonderful game not like the games in London.

[Bewolf]

I thought it was a fun opening. Now the Queen/Bond scene was....well, let's just say I seriously did not expect the Queen taking part in this. Like the Pope suddenly appearing in a Rambo movie. :cool:

And there was only one small left hand Nazi salute and a smiling Churchill, so the UK really makes progress in this regard, no hard feelings there whatsoever. Rather was slightly amused by that, hehe.

What got me going was the musical references. Now that was fun!

[flyingblind]

Technically it was reasonably awesome. I suppose they were always going to have to tread a pretty fine line between 'Hey, look at us, we're British!' and offending the rest of the world. There seemed to me to be endless opportunities for things to go seriously wrong but they never did. I mean, what if a fuse had blown or they forgot to pay the lecky bill?

It leant a bit towards camp and kitsch but then that is what we British are under our stiff upper lips.

Just pleased to see my pound for the Lottery ticket I bought last year was well spent.

[Sternjaeger II]

other than the weak Nazi salute did you guys notice the French athlete giving the fingers? It was deliberate as he then turned his hand to to the victory gesture..

[baronWastelan]

The lack of offensiveness offends me.

[5./JG27.Farber]

other than the weak Nazi salute did you guys notice the French athlete giving the fingers? It was deliberate as he then turned his hand to to the victory gesture..

Hey thats our gestgure to use against them! :-P

[mcler002]

Anyone else notice that fella doing a weak Nazi 'salute' (with his left arm) when the German team entered the arena????

HAHA hell yes! whilst boo'ing in the back ground!

[Robotic Pope]

I'm sorry but this just makes me laugh :lol:
security paranoia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuokRSX2wOs

[5./JG27.Farber]

Lets face it the whole thing has become a fad. Once an event hosted at Mount olympia and basically taking place in a field now needs grand stadiums and loads of Jazz. Its just a comercialised former shadow of itself... Its a crock. Why not just do it in Greece ever year? pfff. :-P;):-x

[MB_Avro_UK]

Hi all,

It was a Marxist script, some say.

Why?


Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

[Blackdog_kt]

Lets face it the whole thing has become a fad. Once an event hosted at Mount olympia and basically taking place in a field now needs grand stadiums and loads of Jazz. Its just a comercialised former shadow of itself... Its a crock. Why not just do it in Greece ever year? pfff. :-P;):-x

Because if it happens like you say, various corporate interests will be unable to bankrupt entire countries to make money for themselves. :-P

P.S. Small correction, Olympia is a town in SW Greece, Mount Olympus is a few hundred km to the NE. ;)

[Wolf_Rider]

I flicked over to watch a bit last night and there it was... some themed sing song going on.
Johnny Rotten (Pretty Vacant) made the olympics!