Olympic opening ceremony....quite interesting

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**MetalOxide**

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19023104

More than 130 cyclists were arrested by police close to the Olympic Stadium on the opening night of the Games.

I find this rich, how its being hosted in London, yet your everyday Brit is allowed nowhere near the Olympic grounds as it may 'disruption' or pose 'security risks'. Can't wait till the games end!

**generalgrog**

The only thing I liked in the ceremony was the Mr. Bean bit...

I agree with Orlanth...would have liked to see more of the history to include the ancient Britons through viking conquest, through Alfred, through Normans...a lot of stuff left offf.

Also how do you leave out Tolkien out of the "great english writers' I mean come on J.K Rowling?

GG

**A Town Called Malus**

generalgrog wrote:The only thing I liked in the ceremony was the Mr. Bean bit...

I agree with Orlanth...would have liked to see more of the history to include the ancient Britons through viking conquest, through Alfred, through Normans...a lot of stuff left offf.

Also how do you leave out Tolkien out of the "great english writers' I mean come on J.K Rowling?

GG

It wasn't "great english writers" it was great British children's writers. So people like Barrie (Peter Pan) and Rowling (Harry Potter, the most successful children's books of all time) fit in better as the majority of Tolkeins work was aimed at adults. This was accentuated by the use of children and staff from Great Ormond Street Hospital in that segment, the same hospital which Barrie gave the rights to Peter Pan to before his death.

A more glaring hole was the lack of Heavy Metal when going through Britain's contributions to music through the decades. One of the genres which was invented purely in Britain and it doesn't even get a short excerpt of Sabbath or Maiden to represent it.

**BolingbrokeIV**

generalgrog wrote:Also how do you leave out Tolkien out of the "great english writers' I mean come on J.K Rowling?

They didn't, the whole green hills turning into industry had Tolkien all over it.

**A Town Called Malus**

Glorioski wrote:
generalgrog wrote:Also how do you leave out Tolkien out of the "great english writers' I mean come on J.K Rowling?

They didn't, the whole green hills turning into industry had Tolkien all over it.

Don't forget the forging of the ring

**Compel**

Great British writers... Not just 'English...'

To quote the BBC

The English are British and lots of people think the British are English but that annoys the Scottish and Welsh because although some think they're British and some think they aren't and some think they are but don't want to be, they all agree that they definitely are not English. The Irish mostly think they are Irish, apart from the ones who are Northern Irish. Some say that makes them British and Irish. But others disagree and say they should just be Irish and then some say they aren't British either but part of the United Kingdom. People from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland can all play cricket for England because they're British as can those from Ireland even though they aren't British. So can South Africans. The English play football for England unless they aren't that good when they might try to play for Ireland. Those from the Isle of Wight are English, from Anglesey are Welsh and the Orkneys are Scottish, but although that means they aren't from the island of Great Britain they're still British. The Channel Islanders depend on the crown which is what the Queen wears but they aren't in the UK and those from the Isle of Man are the same, apart from their cats.

**The Shadow**

I thought it was really good

I can't remember much of Beijing's, being relatively young at the time, although what I remember of it, it was lots of very impressive visual effects.

I'm not sure that we could ever have hoped to match the Chinese at their own game, but we easily made up for it the way the ceremony gripped the audience and kept them guessing.

And Rowan Atkinson was simply amazing :')

**notprop**

We didn't win the Road Race Cycling, I'm bored of this already.

It was always going to be an anticlimax the second the Queen parachuted from a helicopter with Bond.

Schoolboy error there Seb Coe, unless the Queen destroys the Stadium at the closing ceremony with her laser vision, in a stroke killing all heads of state and instantly subjugateing their countries, I can't see it being topped.

**MeanGreenStompa**

The closing ceremony is when the queen demonstrates the destructive capability of our fully operational deathstar...

**A Town Called Malus**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:The closing ceremony is when the queen demonstrates the destructive capability of our fully operational deathstar...

You mean when the whole world witnesses the firepower of our fully armed and operational battle station?

**MeanGreenStompa**

**youbedead**

So apparently NBC cut out a lot of the ceremony, including the 7/7 memorial in favour of showing an interview of Micheal Phelps by Ryan Seacrest, bad form NBC, bad from.

**A Town Called Malus**

youbedead wrote:So apparently NBC cut out a lot of the ceremony, including the 7/7 memorial in favour of showing an interview of Micheal Phelps by Ryan Seacrest, bad form NBC, bad from.

Really? That's pretty disrespectful. I can imagine the outcry if another countries broadcaster did the same to an American ceremony during a segment where it paid tribute to the victims of the Twin Towers.

**MeanGreenStompa**

A Town Called Malus wrote:
youbedead wrote:So apparently NBC cut out a lot of the ceremony, including the 7/7 memorial in favour of showing an interview of Micheal Phelps by Ryan Seacrest, bad form NBC, bad from.

Really? That's pretty disrespectful. I can imagine the outcry if another countries broadcaster did the same to an American ceremony during a segment where it paid tribute to the victims of the Twin Towers.

Indeed, that's very fething rude.

**Jihadin**

NO FLOYD!!!!!

OMG GAWD ENGLAND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!

**youbedead**

Jihadin wrote:NO FLOYD!!!!!

OMG GAWD ENGLAND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!

there was floyd during the lighting of the cauldron

**BolingbrokeIV**

youbedead wrote:
Jihadin wrote:NO FLOYD!!!!!

OMG GAWD ENGLAND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!

there was floyd during the lighting of the cauldron

Yeh they played Eclipse during the torch lighting and Time at the start. What exactly did NBC show?

**Jihadin**

Whew good. Missed quite a bit of it when at my wife doctor appt.s (hip fracture) I rather be shot again then have a hip fracture

**A Town Called Malus**

Plus during the Hospital bit with the giant childrens literature villains my first thought was of Mother, Wife and Teacher from Pink Floyd's and solo Roger Waters' live performances of The Wall.

I'm pretty sure Danny Boyle took some inspiration from it for that particular sequence in the show

**Huffy**

youbedead wrote:So apparently NBC cut out a lot of the ceremony, including the 7/7 memorial in favour of showing an interview of Micheal Phelps by Ryan Seacrest, bad form NBC, bad from.

We can't let their socialist ideas infect the glorious homeland

but still very very rude

**BolingbrokeIV**

Don't know if this is bollocks but it's funny either way....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/07/2012_454294

Independent Greeks demand apology from IOC chief

The Independent Greeks have called on International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to retract a comment he made about the Olympics “coming home” during the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Games on Friday night.

“In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight,” he said. “This great sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern sport.”

Terence Quick, spokesman for the right-wing nationalist party, said that Rogge’s comment was “historically ignorant, unacceptable, provocative and in keeping with the commercialization of the Olympic Ideals.”

He called for the IOC chief to apologize.

“He should retract his comments straight away and apologize to Greeks and Greece, which gave birth to the Olympic Games,” said Quick.

He also criticized the Hellenic Olympic Committee for not reacting to Rogge’s comment.

**Jihadin**

This is starting to be "disconcerting."

edit

They’re going to be the cheekiest gals in London this summer.

Olympian Misty May-Treanor and her fellow competitors on the US women’s beach volleyball team vowed yesterday to keep wearing their sexy bikinis at the upcoming Games — despite a new rule that lets female players compete in dowdy shorts and T-shirts.

“We’re not uncomfortable in our bikinis,” said team member Jen Kessy.

“Growing up in southern California, that’s what you wear from when you’re a little kid to now in the summertime.”

Treanor said she loves to compete in her skimpy, bottom-baring bikini because “what you see is what you get — there’s no airbrushing.”

“I grew up on the beach, grew up in a bikini,” said May-Treanor, who has won two gold medals with her partner, Kerri Walsh.

Olympic officials changed the dress code for the racy sport — in which teams of two compete against each other — to soothe the concerns of nations where religion dictates that women wear more than skimpy swimsuits.

USA USA USA USA WOWSER USA USA USA

**Kilkrazy**

I hope that pole dancing will be in the Rio games.

It's very athletic and rhythmical.

**AlmightyWalrus**

Glorioski wrote:Terence Quick, spokesman for the right-wing nationalist party, said that Rogge’s comment was “historically ignorant, unacceptable, provocative and in keeping with the commercialization of the Olympic Ideals.”

So, kinda like right-wing nationalism most of the time then?

**RaptorsTalon**

Glorioski wrote:Don't know if this is bollocks but it's funny either way....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/07/2012_454294

Independent Greeks demand apology from IOC chief

The Independent Greeks have called on International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to retract a comment he made about the Olympics “coming home” during the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Games on Friday night.

“In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight,” he said. “This great sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern sport.”

Terence Quick, spokesman for the right-wing nationalist party, said that Rogge’s comment was “historically ignorant, unacceptable, provocative and in keeping with the commercialization of the Olympic Ideals.”

He called for the IOC chief to apologize.

“He should retract his comments straight away and apologize to Greeks and Greece, which gave birth to the Olympic Games,” said Quick.

He also criticized the Hellenic Olympic Committee for not reacting to Rogge’s comment.

They are wrong. He said the birthplace of MODERN sport. Not the olympics in general. And he is right, the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock is credited with holding the first modern olympics which went on to start the full international olympics.

**purplefood**

RaptorsTallon wrote:
Glorioski wrote:Don't know if this is bollocks but it's funny either way....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/07/2012_454294

Independent Greeks demand apology from IOC chief

The Independent Greeks have called on International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to retract a comment he made about the Olympics “coming home” during the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Games on Friday night.

“In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight,” he said. “This great sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern sport.”

Terence Quick, spokesman for the right-wing nationalist party, said that Rogge’s comment was “historically ignorant, unacceptable, provocative and in keeping with the commercialization of the Olympic Ideals.”

He called for the IOC chief to apologize.

“He should retract his comments straight away and apologize to Greeks and Greece, which gave birth to the Olympic Games,” said Quick.

He also criticized the Hellenic Olympic Committee for not reacting to Rogge’s comment.

They are wrong. He said the birthplace of MODERN sport. Not the olympics in general. And he is right, the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock is credited with holding the first modern olympics which went on to start the full international olympics.

Suck it Greece!
We're in yoor Olympics killing yoor doodes!

**Experiment 626**

youbedead wrote:So apparently NBC cut out a lot of the ceremony, including the 7/7 memorial in favour of showing an interview of Micheal Phelps by Ryan Seacrest, bad form NBC, bad from.

Why is this so surprising?! I mean, only a couple years ago they introduced Betty Fox as the mother of actor Micheal J Fox afterall.

Overall I enjoyed the Vancouver opening ceremony more, especially our most epic lighting of the flame and it's epic fail!

(which we then turned into a giant joke at the closing ceremonies!)

**Corpsesarefun**

RaptorsTallon wrote:
Glorioski wrote:Don't know if this is bollocks but it's funny either way....

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/07/2012_454294

Independent Greeks demand apology from IOC chief

The Independent Greeks have called on International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to retract a comment he made about the Olympics “coming home” during the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Games on Friday night.

“In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight,” he said. “This great sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern sport.”

Terence Quick, spokesman for the right-wing nationalist party, said that Rogge’s comment was “historically ignorant, unacceptable, provocative and in keeping with the commercialization of the Olympic Ideals.”

He called for the IOC chief to apologize.

“He should retract his comments straight away and apologize to Greeks and Greece, which gave birth to the Olympic Games,” said Quick.

He also criticized the Hellenic Olympic Committee for not reacting to Rogge’s comment.

They are wrong. He said the birthplace of MODERN sport. Not the olympics in general. And he is right, the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock is credited with holding the first modern olympics which went on to start the full international olympics.

To be fair the greeks don't have much left nowadays

**Testify**

I thought it was bloody brilliant. Admitidly, I did watch it in a pub while quite pissed and the sound wasn't on, but it looked fething spectacular.

Rowan Atkinson was brilliant, though JK Rowling can do one as far as I'm concerned

Having watched it again, can't help but feel that the Suffragettes were over-represented, especially considering the omission of the trades union movement as a whole. Que sara.

**Sturmtruppen**

generalgrog wrote:The only thing I liked in the ceremony was the Mr. Bean bit...

I agree with Orlanth...would have liked to see more of the history to include the ancient Britons through viking conquest, through Alfred, through Normans...a lot of stuff left offf.

Also how do you leave out Tolkien out of the "great english writers' I mean come on J.K Rowling?

GG

But there was some Tolkien! They forged a great ring, and there was a big fiery eyeball at the end.