Last night I hunkered down with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I certainly hadn't intended to. The Olympics hold little interest for me, but I was in Edmonton staying with a friend and she wanted to watch them.
I was amazed by how much I enjoyed the production. The music selections were fabulous. I loved the inclusion of First Nations and Inuit people and cultures. I teared up at the beautiful segment about my home, the prairies. I even felt a swell of pride seeing the Canadian athletes.
There were two highlights for me. The first was k.d. lang singing "Hallelujah." A. Mazing.
I wish the International Olympic Committee was allowing the sharing of videos because, although this is great, it doesn't come close to her performance in Vancouver.
The second highlight was Shane Koyczan performing "We Are More."
Again, there isn't the same energy in this recording as there was in BC Place, but you can maybe understand why by the end of the poem I had tears in my eyes.
Mostly? It was great seeing two people who don't look like Megan Fox or Brad Pitt completely fucking rock. Score one for the lesbians and one for the big people!
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Amen, sister-testify!
ReplyDeleteFrances and I also watched the opening ceremonies and felt the same way. The dancer who performed the Prairies areal ballet was amazing. I think the entire production spoke on two levels; for the foreign viewer, an introduction to who we are as a nation. To the Canadian, a re-affirmation about the fact that we really do rock, and we can't forget that.
We loved the aboriginal presentation as well, and it made us feel like we shold be doing a little more on our end to push our politicos to hunker down and resolve some of the issues that have hung around for too long.
We watched much of the opening ceremonies on NBC, to hear hour our southern neigbors reacted to it. They made a point of noticing that the aboriginal dancers were constantly dancing throughout the entrance of the atheletes, which was fantastic. they also had lottle graphics on-screen showing where each country was located in the worl, in relation to the United States (and yes, they did that for Canada too-got it right and everything!!)
I watched the ceremonies here in Japan and I really wish it was as positive an experience. The Japanese announcers blabbed over EVERYTHING. I could understand sometimes if they were translating for the Japanese people, but they weren't really.
ReplyDeleteStill, kd lang was terrific and I'm sure I'd have liked the poet if I'd heard him! The actual spectacle was great and I was thrilled to see Donald Sutherland, Anne Murray (we were listening to her in the car yesterday coincidentally) and Betty Fox.
Was there a problem with Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado's microphones? It was really hard to hear them on our broadcast, but that could always be an NHK thing.
Helen, we could hear them fine. That's too bad your viewing experience was less than optimal. ITunes has the whole 3+ hours available for download for $2, if you're interested.
ReplyDeletei loved that poet! The poem made me cry like a baby... and k.d. rocked my world. So powerful.
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