The Opening Ceremony
Last night, I watched the Olympic opening ceremony. Or should that be early this morning? In Western Australia it was on from 1:30am to 5:30am, I am officially buggered today.
I have to say, it was worth it though. The ceremony was very theatrical and that made it a joy to watch. Bonus points need to be given to the people who were in charge of costumes and make-up, there didn’t seem to be any detail spared.
The water was a bit odd, thoughts of “how the hell are they going to get rid of it” and “where will the athletes stand, in the water” ran through my tired head. My tired thoughts were answered, when the commentators explained how very high tech it all was, and that the water drains away in 3 minutes. The state-of-the-art gas system under the water for the flames was what I was most interested in, since I’m a geek, it’s all about the cool flames coming from under the water. Oh yeah baby, flames.
So many wires, I’m amazed nothing went wrong. It reminded me a bit of the movie ‘What Dreams May Come’ at one point, maybe it was because I was lacking sleep or maybe it was the guy on the wire floating around, just like a scene in WDMC.
The only part that left me wondering was the sheet bit, where a sheet was pulled over the athletes during a performance. Unless it symbolised she had a really long dress, it really had no meaning and was just another ‘cool thing’ they could do (which was also done at Sydney I might add).
The athletes coming out was a bit long, and I had to read a book to stay awake (‘Just a geek’ by Will Wheaton). I also think that merchandising should make official camera head straps that the athletes can use to strap their camera’s to their head. The more hands free to wave flags and make hand signals at the many TV camera’s the better.
My favourite bit (from the telecast I was watching) was when they had a close up of one of the people that kept all the athletes in order, lets call them the ‘hand holding barriers’ since that’s pretty much all they did for two hours. The hand holding barriers were doing some hand signals, or maybe it was sign language, whatever it was the guy didn’t seem to know them well. He missed a few and stumbled along with a camera right in his face. Maybe everyone else was doing it wrong and he was the only one doing it right or he was busy thinking that this was a dumb idea, he should never listen to his friends, quick $50 his ass. His arms are probably killing him today, what with all the hand holding that went on.
I thought the flame lighting wasn’t amazing. Sydney still kicks ass in the flame lighting department. Yep, if you’ve got a flame, we can light it mate!
Nikita is a 30-something year old geeky girl that resides in Perth, Western Australia studies event management, works at events and runs EnjoyPerth. She is a self confessed high heel worshipper that suffers from multipletabitis. Kitta spends her spare time blogging sporadically, volunteering, gaming and likes taking photos of the contents of the universe.
Kitta.net 
Man, Athens kicked Sydneys’ OC-ass. Of course, I was never a huge fan of Sydneys OC anyway. The Closing Ceremony kicked ass, though.
The statue-type theatrics were awesome. But one of the wire-flying-running-men should have lit the flame. That would have been sweet.
What the hell was up with Bjork? I mean, shes cool in a loony way, but shes Icelandic, not Greek!
Water-flames kick ass.
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I always find the olympics to be boring maybe its because they happen on odd numbered years of my life (ie. ages 1,5,9,13,17,21). which also means that I have seen one more than Kitta hahaha. My other problem is too many of the sports nowadays need judges. If the sport doesn’t have clear winner it shouldn’t be in the olympics. On another note what was the final word on chess being an olympic sport?, did that happen or not, cause if it did I’m going to get after them for Halo to be an olympic sport.
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Spectacular – I also thought that the flames were the coolest part.. One of the commentators mentioned that the water-storage chamber below the stadium is something like 25m deep with a 35m diameter – now that’s a big tank !
Without whining about which country does it better, I think the whole point is to improve with every single Olympics (after all, striving towards an improved future for humanity is one of the driving factors behind the games).
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I’ve seen that water-flame thing in discovery travel and adventure when they featured the world’s only 7-star hotel and the tallest one at the same time which is in saudi arabia. it’s amazing! (i’m talking as if i’ve actually seen it. haha).
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imho…
OLYMPICS SUCK. They’re an excuse to disrupt my tv scheduel and I want them GONE. I could have watched the opening ceromonies, but I was too busy doing something I like to call NOT WASTING MY LIFE.
The only Olympics that won’t completely BLOW monkey ASS are the 2010 olympics, because they’re in Canada, and everything Canadian is almost-not-as-bad-as-everything-that-is-not-Canadian.
And for the record, and sorry to say this, Australia blows at the olympics… when was the last time they won a gold medal? Oh, that’s right, when the rest of the speed skaters got in a crash and the Australian speed skater was so far behind he had time to veer around the crash skate across the finish line. At least, that wast the last time I saw Australia win a gold medal, because I soon realised the supreme suckularity that is the Olympic games.
…canada pwnz…
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Come on Dan, the Olympics are the only time when people from so many countries come together, they only disrupt your precious TV schedule for a few weeks and in that time you can catch up on some DVD’s.
Also your “Australia blows” statement is false, Australia does not blow at the Olympics, we win large amounts of medals at the summer Olympics – as you can see here. We never win much at the winter Olympics due to the fact that we’re in a warmer climate.
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“we win large amounts of medals at the summer Olympics – as you can see here”
Holy… ! But I guess it would make sense… ugh, must start thinking logically.
Anyhoo, I still don’t like my TV scheduel being screwed with. When they remove my only Simpsons-source, they are CROSSING THE LINE.
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C’mon Dan, stop wasting your life away in front of a screen a live a little – It’ll do you good 🙂 The Olympics represent humanity in its purest form, so screw the Simpsons for a while !
As for the medals, who cares ? Taking part is 99% of the point…
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the best thing at the aussey games was lil kylie singing her ass off, i enjoyed that bit. i think us brits are hosting it next time
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“C’mon Dan, stop wasting your life away in front of a screen a live a little”
As in… focus my attention on a different screen? Cuz that’s what I’d be doing if I watched the Olympics.
I feel like a spammer…. 33% of the replies, that cannot be good. So, I’ll shut up now 😉
Oh, and btw, the Olyimpics do not represent humanity in it’s purest form. I do.
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i love the olympics, and i totally agree with you kitta, it’s one of the only times we come together as a globe/ planet/ whatever – one people. it’s exciting.
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oh, btw… digital angel for sure – i love the cam pic!
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Kitta, congratulations on the Aussie gold medal in the swimming relay!! Now rub it in to that goofy Canadian
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Yet another gold in the womens road race.. Way to go Aussie
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*Corrections: “…in charge ‘of’ costumes…” and “What Dreams ‘May’ Come”.
I wondered the same thing about the water at first, but then thats all I thought about, and figured there was a huge piston in the middle of the pool of water that pushed down letting all the water drain in the middle. Thats my guess anyway. And when they made the Olympic rings out of fire, I was awe-struck. That image is going to be used for years in commercials for the Olympics, or people shamelessly exploiting the Olympics to sell products.
Oh, and also, the ‘explosions’ set off in a circle around the top of the stadium was quite amazing too.
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Quote from Daniel: “Oh, and btw, the Olyimpics do not represent humanity in it’s purest form. I do.”…. He does have a point, he does represent humanity pretty well.
And I must say I cannot wait for the Olympics of 2010 either, mainly because I’m a crazy Cannuck as well (And/or Canadian… I’m really not sure what Cannuck means anyway, or if thats spelt right). I’m fine with the Olympics, as long as it doesn’t mess up my “Big Brother 5” schedule. I’m not sure if they show that in Australia, but I’m addicted! Go Diane Go! wooot.
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Didn’t watch it, but now I wish I had….
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Mens 4x 100m Relay: Gold and a new World Record for RSA – Thank you very much.. 🙂
Better luck next time USA and AUS !
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I got to catch about 30 mins of the opening ceremony, it was interesting to a point. In my opinion the Sydney Olympics were so much more interesting. Don’t get me wrong the amazing detail of the Greek mythology was beautiful, i still preferred the drag queens n kylie singing 😉
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I’ve noticed it mentioned in several places but what is going on with the outfits the volleyball players are wearing?? There’s a whole lot more tham showing. I’m not complaining AT ALL, but it’s strange that those are the shots that all the “legit” news agencie are using when reporting about the Olympics.
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Damn I’m just annoyed that they don’t heve Kendo in the Olympics this year but they have fencing like WTF. Oh and Kitta love the desktop Domo-kun’s kick ass.
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I thought the opening ceremonies were fantastic. But what blew me away was when the cycladiacal head came apart and images were projected on it AND the fact that the pieces were moving on the wires and the projectors tracked the object so the image stayed center of the piece. Very cool!
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I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of the Olympics, but this did catch my eye: Some countries, including Saudi Arabia, do not allow female athletes to compete.
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There was a follow-up post to the one I linked to previously… Did you know that “a woman’s hair emanates dangerous rays that could drive men wild with sexual lust“?
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kitta check out the news on this web site…
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10466280%255E421,00.html
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Steve… What the heck is Kendo? They only put sports in the Olympics that all countries actually do (or for that matter heard of)…. I’ve never actually seen anyone fence in Canada, but I’m sure they do… if not, we atleast know what that is! haha
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Obligatory link to burning and blowing things up – the people in question are even Australians!
Sparkler Bombs
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Syndey was the millenium olympics….over it everyone, athens may have 2004 olympics but sydney had 200 and in my opinion, that’s the best. Always go for nice, round numbers and forget things like 2004, 2008, etc etc etc. The next cool olympics will be 2020, another nice, round, even number. So until then, sydney was the best, and as for the olympic medals? Currently, australia are fourth, which isn’t bad for country of about 20 millions, who are below three nations who have populations in the billions, practically. They have a much wider population from which to chose the best, we have 19 million. So I think we’re dong pretty damn good. And as for Phelps? Ha, 8 medals my arse, Ian Thorpe has 8 gold already, 7 in the last Olympics. If Phelps can do that then I’ll move to the united states, but until then, it ain’t happening!
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I thought Thorpe won three gold and two silver in the last Olympics
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hallo, i´m from so my english knowledge is not that goodish. Please dont blame me. I try to read online journals to improve my english and say that your blog was perfect readable for me, because the english is really clear-thinking and all the posts are perfect readable. I will keep on reading it, to improve my english even more. Thanks a lot 🙂
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