The Olympics are finally here, and I for one am really pleased and excited by the whole thing. I've always loved the Olympics from a young boy right through to adulthood. I'll be watching a ton of it on the telly-box and I will be cheering the Great Britain team on and hoping each participant can excel in their individual sports.
So why do I have this post title then? Well, unfortunately I was massively underwhelmed by the opening ceremony, and felt that huge chunks of it simply didn't work. It lacked cohesion and, for anyone other than a British national, whole sections would have left world's onlookers utterly bemused.
I'm sorry, but you cannot try to encapsulate "Britishness" in a two or three hour ceremony. Who's the smart-arse that thought we should even try? Putting on a spectacular display is the only thing that's expected - and more importantly, the only thing that is wanted.
Mary Poppins flying down from the sky? Puh-lease!
J.K.Rowling and then the NHS? Do me a favour.
The industrial revolution and prats walking around in top hats performing some demented mime act? Just fuck off.
And what was the Telly-tubbies landscape all about? It all left me cold, I'm afraid. The highlight for me - and to be fair there were some excellent parts of the ceremony - was the lighting of the flame, which I thought was quite superb, original and ingenious. But even that was messed-up by giving the task of lighting the flame to a bunch of hopefuls who may go on to achieve absolutely nothing in their sports careers. Surely we should have given that honour to someone who's already put in the hours and reached the pinnacle of their sport; someone who's already acheived the highest honours on the world stage; someone who's actually fought and toiled and worked all through their sporting careers, and earned the huge privilege of lighting the flame... Erm, no, let's give it to a group of spotty teenagers who we may never see again.
Okay, I'll leave it there. I have to say, I've really enjoyed my "moan-fest", and feel much better for having got it off my chest.
Phew!
There is no interesting things in this article but very informative and of course useful to someone.
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I think you missed the point.....
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I did, Vagabond. Do please enlighten me.
ReplyDeleteYeah the historic tour of twee hobbit land was desperate. Some of it actually embarrassing, like a bad school end of year show. Ken Brannagh hamming it up and Mr Bean ffs. Only got interesting when the the teams came on and the later sections were good. Excellent fireworks etc. It's about time they stopped wheeling Macca on at every opportunity. His voice is gone
ReplyDeleteMy comment related to the post by Majeda Khatun not your entry Soccer Dude which to a large extent I totally agree with. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteOkay, sorry for the misunderstanding, Vagabond.
ReplyDeletePaul, totally agree with you about Macca and his voice. I said exactly the same thing to several people today.
Totally disagree with almost everything you said about the ceremony other than the bit about the kids lighting the flame - didn't get that at all, I wanted Daley Thompson and the others out there! I was pleasantly surprised overall and love the fact they deliberately tried not to compete with Beijing and go for an OTT show, that would be pointless cos you cannot top what they did.
ReplyDeleteIt's usually the sort of thing I would find twee aswell but it strangely stirred something patriotic within me - maybe I'm softening with old age! I guess no one is ever going to like everything to do with these things though (and you are right in that much of it will have gone straight over the heads of the worldwide audience).
Thanks for the comment, Sultan.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the opening ceremony is a bit like Marmite. There were a few people I spoke to of the same mind as you, but also a great deal of people who mentioned the same things as me.
I think you're right that trying to out Beijing the Olympics at Beijing would have been a mistake, and I agree that trying something different was no bad thing, but I can't say that the "something different" was a success because, for my mind, it simply wasn't.
Totally agree with you about Daley Thompson. He would have been an excellent choice that few could have quibbled with. Steve Redgrave was also an obvious candidate.
Anyway, with the games now in full swing, I suppose this is all a bit academic. I'm thoroughly enjoying every sport I've watched so far. I love the Olympics.