Olympinonsense

[Anna]

As to the tracksuits, googling reveals they were designed exclusively for tonight’s performance. That's a relief then that we won't have to see them again. I like Stella McC's designs for the kit they'll wear when competing. (Shame GB Archery team have been knocked out before things have got going!!)

[amateur51]

(Shame GB Archery team have been knocked out before things have got going!!)

Maybe their performance was blighted by the absence of reference to events in Ambridge & Borchester from the Opening Event?

[Resurrection Man]

In case anyone would like to see more of the work by the creator of the cauldron - Thomas Heatherwick - can be seen here http://www.heatherwick.com/category/large/

I'd like to know who the 'heroine' was in the pop music sequence...the girl with the amazing hair....her smile lit up the stadium.

[Lateralthinking1]

Being joyous and enthusiastic is fine. But you don't have to be a crass exhibitionist to express this. The rest of the world showed them up.

I agree with you Eine that Team GB were by far the least dignified. Overall, the procession was joyful but I don't know why so many people here think they have to screech at the top of their heads and gurn. The United States were the runners up in the crassness stakes for their usual stereotypical brashness. Third, the militaristic aloofness from a handful of small totalitarian states.

I particularly liked Boyle's cutting up of film and live performance in a scrapbook style. It reminded me a little of the theatre version of 'Tommy' I saw many years ago. A lot of vivid impressions were created through the imagery and colour. I thought he found that historical meeting point of socialism and conservatism where politics can be literally undermined to reveal something more visceral and even slightly pagan in the British character. Not tension exactly but more a barely controlled pandemonium as he described.

As for the more recent, yes, it was very much a modern mash-up, but he also clearly had a strong feel for the seventies. Tubular Bells and the Pistols are both somehow quintessentially the London of that decade when, as with the writing of Ackroyd, all that earth and stone of history were culturally churned. Perhaps it had to be to usher in a digital age so precise that it can only be negotiated in the haze of permanent raves. The drama was wholly insular as befits this country and yet simultaneously wonderfully subversive. A celebration of all the world's cultures while completely ignoring globalisation, counter to the entrepreneurs' aims.

It is fascinating how you can look at sport through the prism of politics and it seems bloody awful. Then you can look at it through art and suddenly find a lot of cosier connections. I was prepared to choose the latter for the duration but I also feel that it is a sort of trickery. Sure, it has been carried across into today and I am happy for it to work for me on those lines where it suits. But to forget the terrible cost of it is to take one's eye off the ball. Athletes stay real and are always aware of strong opponents.

Does anyone know what that grey thing in a bed at the end of the NHS section was intended to be? I would genuinely like to know. Someone said it was an ill person but given that there was at one point a bike in the sky, I wondered if it was ET.

[amateur51]

Does anyone know what that grey thing in a bed at the end of the NHS section was intended to be? I would genuinely like to know. Given that there was at one point a bike in the sky, I wondered if it was ET.

Close but not as cuddly, Lat - I think it was Andrew Lansley

[John Wright]

We thought it was a baby, and assumed we'd missed something before about it.

[antongould]

Close but not as cuddly, Lat - I think it was Andrew Lansley

Awesome Ams - everyone a winner

[Lateralthinking1]

Close but not as cuddly, Lat - I think it was Andrew Lansley

Don't think so. It might have been a baby as John Wright says. I would still really like to know.

Thank you to mangerton for earlier comments about the National Anthem. I note and respect them but other people have replied and I don't have anything to add at this stage.

I agree with kernelbogey that it was good to have had a lot of ordinary people performing. Many of the bigwigs have spoken about the peoples' games without meaning a word of it. I think Boyle injected something of that into this event, albeit at terrible cost.

When the cameras caught Cameron and Johnson unawares, I thought they looked like thunder. That was worth a little of the money in itself.

[Anna]

I'd like to know who the 'heroine' was in the pop music sequence...the girl with the amazing hair....her smile lit up the stadium.

Her name is Jasmine Breinburg, an 18 year old dance student from East London. For those who didn't watch until the end or missed it completely the Ceremony is now on iplayer, minus commentary, and available until January 2013 and with a running time of 230mins presumably without parade of the athletes. I intend to watch it again at some stage.

[Nick Armstrong]

After all the hype and meeja build-up I just couldn't bring myself to watch. And after hearing the descriptions on the radio this morning and reading more on here, I'm glad I didn't.

S_A with all due respect I think your decision was mistaken. You've missed out. See e.g. kernel and ammy51 at ##514 & 516 above. Do give it a try

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We thought it was a baby, and assumed we'd missed something before about it.

Must've been Michael Gove then.

[pilamenon]

S_A with all due respect I think your decision was mistaken. You've missed out. See e.g. kernel and ammy51 at ##514 & 516 above. Do give it a try

Yes, there was ambition, originality, and has any other opening ceremony dared to do comedy?

[Stillhomewardbound]

'Essex Girls Night Out':

No, I'm afraid Team GB's 'Essex Girls Night Out' (sorry genuine Essex county folk) behaviour was terribly demeaning. Fair enough, they'd been given those naff shell suits to wear, but they seemed to have entirely forgotten that we are the host nation. That involves a high degree of responsibility and with it, surely, a sense of some gravitas and dignity is a minimum.

'Natalie Notatalleasytopronounceavitchsillybitch':

Apparently the UK tv audience was 27 million which is tremendous, especially, given how diminished our sense of nationhood is these days, but, saints preserve us, the inanity of the so called commentators and their crass dribble as the teams entered the arena. It was pure Colemanballs time as they sweated and giggled over 'foreign' names, one competitore being called 'Scheidt' ... ha ha ha, 'and every commentators delighted that 'Natalie Notatalleasytopronounceavitchsillybitch' hasn't made her nation's team this year due to a n injury ... phew!'

'Apart from that, Mrs.Lincoln ... how was the play?!'

So, what did the Queen make of it all? I think that ill timed cut away shot of her inspecting her finger nails said it all. Meanwhile, the Duke of Edinburgh's only consolation could have been that he's got lots of new material to last out his remaining days. Still, it seems a cruel evening treat (four hours plus) for a very elderly couple.

Highlights:

The virtual doves ... the teams that DID march with dignity ... the depiction of the forging of the rings (astonishing) ... the torches passed to the young athletes for the lghting of the flame ... edgy, gritty pop music with an energy and execution that I didn't expect to like at all, but loved ... and Daniel Barenmboim as one of the Olympic flag bearers (indeed, I stayed up a further three hours watching the Beethoven 5th & 6th Symphonies with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra).

And finally ...

It was certainly a unique occasion and one that is the talk of the world, albeit with the odd guffaw in there, but the Games are now underway and we can only wish all the competitors the very best and the all the visitors great moments to treasure.

SHB

[marthe]

oh, fair enough. I shall pack away my cynicism.

Mercia, the whole thing was broadcast here in the US starting at 7:30 PM EDT so that it could be shown in prime time. While the actually ceremony, at least the parade of nations, was going on (afternoon over here), we were treated to a countdown of 30 Great Olympic Moments. NBC is broadcasting the Olympics over here.

[Anna]

Yes, there was ambition, originality, and has any other opening ceremony dared to do comedy?

I seem to recall Sydney had a segue about Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? (I love that film) and was reasonably light-hearted but certainly not comedy as we had last night. In fact I am looking forward to seeing it again minus the commentary and would urge S_A to at least have a look sometime.