16 Responses to “The Spectacle”

1. #1 |  Nando |  August 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

   Aren’t they replaying the whole opening ceremony tonight on NBC?

2. #2 |  Highway |  August 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

   Yeah, it’s tonight’s NBC broadcast. I don’t think it was shown live in the US.

3. #3 |  Thomas Blair |  August 8th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

   Aye. It was.

   http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/2008_olympics_opening_ceremony.html

4. #4 |  KBCraig |  August 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

   “Spectacle” is the right term. Ant labor can be impressive, although it’s sad to watch.

   I’m reminded of the “pixel people” in the Arirang:
   http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1454975007

5. #5 |  The Brown Acid |  August 8th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

   Man, I left Beijing August 7th. Wish my academic obligations hadn’t gotten in the way – I would have loved to see the ceremony.

   The energy and excitement was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, like I said, I wish I could have stayed longer.

6. #6 |  j.d. |  August 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

   those aren’t fireworks. that’s just the color of flame you get when your burn dissidents.

7. #7 |  Chris in AL |  August 8th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

   I am watching the ceremonies now and it is stunning. It is heartbreaking for me to think about what these thousands of performers lives may be like the rest of the time…But what they created here is beauty worthy of praise and they deserve to have the world see it.

   It may be that some day these games, and the world’s participation, will be seen as the catalyst of change for the Chinese people to a better form of government. I hope so.

8. #8 |  xyz123 |  August 8th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

   berlin, 1936.

9. #9 |  Chris in AL |  August 8th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

   Of course, the fact that we are not allowed to watch something so beautiful without NBC’s frickin’ logo plastered on the upper corner of the screen throughout the entire thing says something about our own culture. Nothing, no matter how wonderous, has value unless we can attach a corporate tag to it.

   Hey NBC…we know what channel we turned on you assholes.

10. #10 |  Mikestermike |  August 9th, 2008 at 12:27 am

    Me & the wife were watching this evening….We both agree that while awesome, the drum demo was extremely friightening. 2008 folks moving as one. The State controls all.

11. #11 |  dsmallwood |  August 9th, 2008 at 2:28 am

    anyone else having trouble watching this? i hear all the “ooing” and “aaaing” from Costas and i feel like he would have enjoyed the games in 1936 too.

    at one point someone said that “i can’t believe you can coordinate the movements of 2,008 people so well …” really? really?!? i bet i can get them to level a village, flood a valley, or even purge a social class. watching this without acknowledging the dictatorship that created it makes me feel dirty

12. #12 |  Brass |  August 9th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    Good God! Did the atmosphere finally catch fire over there?

13. #13 |  Billy Beck |  August 9th, 2008 at 11:28 am

    I’ve been a stage-lighting designer and director for thirty-one years. That was the biggest cued lighting production I ever saw. They were throwing consistent color around that stadium like it was a 35′x50′ deck at some local proscenium house. The fly-rigging was completely out of hand.

    Never saw anything like it.

    And all the way through it, I was sickened, knowing where it comes from.

14. #14 |  Honeyko |  August 10th, 2008 at 4:43 am

    Haven’t seen any of it yet; too busy reading about Russian sending tanks into the Sudetanlan–, er, Georgia, and killing thousands of people.

15. #15 |  the friendly grizzly |  August 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Brass: that was not the atmosphere catching fire, at least not in that picture. It was the simultaneous failure of Chinese-made electrical goods being called a light show.

16. #16 |  Lee |  August 11th, 2008 at 2:29 am

    There are reports that the fireworks you saw on TV didn’t happen nearly as much as shown, and computer graphics were used to generate the effects. Use google to search it.

---