Was that a human Lite-Brite I saw?

I liveblogged the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics for work tonight. I really need to stop doing that. It’s all good and well-intentioned, but in the end, I end up kicking myself for not being able to really let fly with what I’m thinking, which is really what HYMT.com is all about.

So here’s what we’ll do. After the jump is the liveblog (copyrights be damned, we’ll call it “simulcasting”), but first some of the commentary that got left out of the corporate site:

-“The worst part about the Chinese theme for the Opening Ceremonies, I’m just going to want more in an hour.”
-(about the earthquake-surviving kid with Yao Ming, who had his flag upside-down somehow) “Cute kid. He’ll be shot before sunrise.”
-The organizing committee went to great lengths to make sure no one knew the plans for the ceremony. Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

…and so on, including the Polish woman who seriously must go about 6-6, 280. Or whatever that is in Euros.

Now, off to the liveblog!

They’ll be going on for four hours, leading to the Games which will dominate headlines for two-plus weeks, so why not some idle commentary?

8:12 pm – If the first ten minutes of these opening ceremonies are any indication, the Olympics are going to rock. I didn’t catch the official name, and probably couldn’t spell it anyway, but those light-up drums were freaking awesome. I’m not much of a fan of the and quot;symbolism and quot; aspect of some opening ceremonies, but give me fireworks and flashing lights and I’m like a puppy.

8:35 pm – Getting into some of that symbolism, but still way cool. The rising and falling blocks at the end of the printing display was pretty solid and even though I had a hunch that there were people in there, all of them jumping out and waving was great.

That Coke commercial, however, with birds stealing straws, may give me nightmares.

8:49 pm – Maybe my memory isn’t working right, but I don’t know if any of the performers in the past half-dozen opening ceremonies enjoyed themselves as much as the ones tonight have. It just appears to be a happiness, rather than an almost arrogance.

And in the newsroom, if anyone knows where Dave Calabro can get ‘one of those cool light up suits’, he can be reached at the station.

9:15 pm – People running around the globe? Smiley face fireworks? Yeah, this keeps getting better. If you had asked me an hour and 45 minutes ago if I’d still be watching this intently, I’d probably have offered a less-than-intent no, But this is still cool.

9:24 pm – I’m SO glad I didn’t wear my olive green blazer and pants today. But to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack – It looks good on Turkmenistan, though.

9:27 pm – I’m not expert in taekwondo, but Mali’s eight-foot taekwondo athlete might be a good one to put your money on.

9:38 pm – I didn’t know this before, but apparently, Mauritius’ chief export is polka dots.

9:58 pm – Apparently, the Canadians just got done painting.

10:17 pm – We’ve been marching athletes for an hour now and I still can’t quite figure out what the deal with the bagpipes is. Not a bad touch, really, just doesn’t scream Chinese culture to me.

10:21 pm – Albania…Albania. You border on the Adriatic. Your land is mostly mountainous…and your chief export is chrome. (I knew that from memory, much to the confusion of my co-workers, but confirmed it here.)

10:35 pm – The United States comes through and behaves for the most part. Good for us, a change from past years.

10:52 pm – I think they just blew through Costa Rica. Not cool. That place is an awesome country with some pretty nice people (and one pushy resort manager, but I won’t hold that against my friends at the all-inclusive wet bar at the Hotel Sol de Playa Hermosa.)

10:54 pm – Ireland comes through, but no bagpipes. A little ironic, don’t ya think?

10:56 pm – As we watch the parade of nations, word from Beijing is Katerina Emmons from the Czech Republic is the first gold medal winner. Congrats to her. In air rifle. REALLY. Congrats to her.

Once the confusion of the final torchbearer went away (and that cable didn’t really snap like it looked like it was going to), that was pretty cool. A job well done all around by the Beijing folks.

And to cap the night off, China already has a gold medal. Chen Xiexia won the 48kg women’s weightlifting title.

One thought on “Was that a human Lite-Brite I saw?”

  1. Bagpipes are Scottish. But I wounder how much the Old Spice people payed for the placement.
    I’ll never forget that song as long as I live.

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