Olympics Parade of Nations

[Darnell 8,479]

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OK - Wayne made it to the outside cauldron.

and it's really cool.

But it has 4 pylons on the outside of the cauldron.

WOW.

Go Wayne !!!

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Edited February 13, 2010 by Darnell

[Darnell 8,479]

got snow?

or is this a bust?

look up, lass - it's there

It's just starting to show here now!

Oh california, I don't like your coverage.

Oh Rhiannercakes, I beg of YOU, O Rhiannercakes,

can you make similar running commentary, here in this topic?

grazie !

[Ali G. 37]

Vancouver bloody rocks. Yet Scandal dares to compare the just rated 2010 world's most livable city to Chicago. Anyways..

Cities in Canada and Australia are most liveable in the world

Edited February 13, 2010 by Booyah

[Rhiannercakes 14]

Well I can try.

It started by a snowboarder entering the stadium with the flag (I think? I kinda missed it), then Mounties walked the flag to the pole then the national theme of Canada.

Okay so first the 4 major tribes of Aboriginals welcomed everyone in their own languages, then the other major tribes danced into the stadium.

Their costumes were awesome.

Now all the teams are entering the stadium, first Greece, now all of them by alphabetical order. Of course, Canada goes last.

[Darnell 8,479]

Rhiannercakes - you rock, lass !! please keep it up ?

[scandal 951]

Very cool show.

I liked the voice overs by Donald Sutherland all the way through, quoting famous Canadians like W.O.Mitchell.

All these old guys are looking pretty swell! Looks like there's plenty of botox to go around for Bobby Orr, Gretzky, Bryan Adams.

[Ali G. 37]

Very cool show.

Rubbish, it would be better in Chicago..

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

As a lifelong British Columbian, and an almost lifelong Vancouverite, I gotta say that the opening ceremonies were pretty good. More from a technical standpoint than anything (except for that one malfunctioning torch pillar), but definitely something I'm glad I was in the area to see.

Bryan Adams was indeed lip-syncing, but most of the other performances looked to be genuine.

And k. d. lang hit Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" right out of the park. That may even be better than Jeff Buckley's version, I think... Just incredible.

I was even moderately impressed by the slam poet...and I'm more critical of poetry than any other art form.

I was VERY happy about how they did the torch ceremony. Six of Canada's best living athletes, ostensibly lighting the torch together. And yes, Gretzky deserved the honor of lighting the outdoor one too. Rick Hansen would have been the other perfect candidate, but I'm totally fine with it being Wayne.

Let the games begin!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Boring. Where's the chainsaws?

_-Dn_dpW17w

Edited February 13, 2010 by Lone Ranger

[Rhiannercakes 14]

I love the march of the athletes, especially loving the countries with less than 5 people!

Oh Bermuda, I love your shorts!

Some of the countries are huge!

It blows me away.

Interesting, one of the people from Peru came to the US to marry his wife, I wonder if he did a K-1 or not?

Haha, one of the flag bearers hit one of the performers, haha. She was from Slovenia.

Those dancers are crazy, they've been dancing for almost an hour now!

And in comes Canada, woo! Go Canada! 206 people? I'm actually blown away, I didn't think we'd almost have as much as the US!

And there's Brian Adams! He's totally awesome.... even if he's lip syncing peopel say. There's Nelly too... I can't spell her name

They sing quite well together.

Edited February 13, 2010 by Rhiannercakes

[natty bumppo 297]

Monseiur Rogge is up now, finally I understand is 'applause signs' but they are using some drums, instead.

Wow - his French speaking much better than this prior speaker. woop !

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Ya, I'm 'in-town', on 2 acres, very rural, with fiber optic internet (I'm just south o Meyerland over the A90 hump).

good for you ... are you proud of this??

A90???

let me google this road ... i've not seen an A90 road sign here recently .....

[scandal 951]

I was VERY happy about how they did the torch ceremony. Six of Canada's best living athletes, ostensibly lighting the torch together. And yes, Gretzky deserved the honor of lighting the outdoor one too. Rick Hansen would have been the other perfect candidate, but I'm totally fine with it being Wayne.

It wasn't only athletes. Yes, they had Nancy Greene and Jacques Villeneuve and Bobby Orr, and the basketball player that I'd never heard of before (I don't follow the NBA), and some guy named Wayne . But -- they also had Terry Fox's mom and Anne Murray and the astronaut (didn't know her either) and Donald Sutherland and Romeo Dallaire. All in all, a very diverse bunch. Really classy.

Hey -- who remembers Steve Fonyo? Hmm? Anyone? No, didn't think so. Sad story.

Rick Hansen was there, Terry Fox's mom was there. Where was Fonyo? In jail again

The thing is -- he actually DID complete a coast to coast run across Canada on one leg. Not to take anything away from Terry Fox, who was a true hero, but Terry stopped at Thunder Bay. Fonyo made it all the way. Now, he's just a nobody.

Edited February 13, 2010 by scandal

[Rhiannercakes 14]

Honestly, I love the Olympic Coca Cola commercial. So funny.

The cultural presentation was quite interesting. I didn't really understand it very well, maybe I'm just not cultured enough. The lighting effects were really well executed. The giant light up bear was so cool. I dont know if you noticed, but everyone in the audience has a flashlight to make them look... mystic?

The ice breaking up on the floor with the lights was really really different. The whales were awesome. The projecting was just amazing to me. I've never seen anything like it.

Then Sarah sung. She really has a nice voice. The song was really pretty too. People dancing around the giant tree when she was singing it. That part was a bit too long, in my opinion.

And now we're back on commercials.

[scandal 951]

The whales were awesome. The projecting was just amazing to me. I've never seen anything like it.

Yes, they were. I was watching on my HDTV, and I could swear they had transformed the floor into a Seaworld sized aquarium. Amazing!

Then Sarah sung. She really has a nice voice. The song was really pretty too. People dancing around the giant tree when she was singing it. That part was a bit too long, in my opinion.

I fast forwarded her on my DVR

[Rhiannercakes 14]

Now we get to learn a bit about Quebec. Neat way to start, a guy comes down in a lit canoe. Don't really understand the legend it's based off of, but oh well. He was fiddle battling with his own shadow. I find that neat.

Now there's Maple Leaves all over the floor, the projection is doing a nice job. Leaves are falling too!

I like the dancing fiddlers. Fiddling is nice to listen to, looks like a few of them broke some of the horse hairs on theirs too.

(I comment on the silliest things Harhar)

The ceremony's longer than I thought it would be too.

More dancing, love their stage though, the giant maple leaves and their costumes are really colourful too. The solo tap dancing was really catchy. He looked so happy to be there on stage.

Now there's watter going around all the leaves and there's people dancind on the leaf "lily pads". I didn't think tap dancing could be this interesting! Now their feet are on fire! Or sparklers anyway. I'm surprised they didn't slip on the fake snow. I think I liked that more than the Aboriginal part.

For the next part, the guy running on the wheat field was neat. The flying part was a bit silly though, but that's just me. Was the guy flying supposed to symbolize something... because I didn't understand it. The wheat showing up where he touched was neat. Then there was horses running across the field, then it turned into geese. Then the end of that one.

Then there was lightning and thunder! And what looks like a hurricane with the curtains in the middle symbolizing the eye. Then the curtains were pulled up and turned into a moutain, then people on skiis and snowboards down on wires mimic-ing people going up and down the mountain. I really liked this. After a while, they started showing Olympic footage on the moutain. Then people on rollerblades showed up and started skating around. I think they were trying to represent all the sports done at the Olympics. WOW the floor was amazing at that part, all the lights going in all different kinds of directions.

Man this is one long show.

Hah, the person who did the poem about Canada was found on YouTube. I really enjoyed the poem, since I'm Canadian and all

Then people went into a maple leaf shape and lit up some red lights wee.

Man, when's the torch lighting?