On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 3:25 AM, Trevor Trevor <[email protected]> wrote:
> > http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2010/02/13/spo-opening-ceremony-awkward.html > Nice piece. >From the sound of this though, it seems that folks watching in Canada were not told what Gretsky was doing - while on NBC they immediately basically corrected the arena announcer, who had said the ceremonies were concluded, by saying that somebody was going to take the flame to the outdoors site. I just watched Jimmy Roberts up close and personal essay on this on NBC (I have a conditioned cringe response whenever I hear him switch his voice into that sentimental mode), and his take is that Gretsky's drive to the outdoor site was an emotional high point. I agree with the blogger above however - the truck ride through Vancouver traffic seemed kind of lame ( have been to downtown Vancouver a couple of times for conventions, and I recognized where the outdoor flame was, but I could not orient it to where the indoor arena was). The whole idea of an indoor flame lighting ceremony was kind of lame actually - better to start indoors, and then have a relay running the flame to the outdoor site (showing it on a big screen for the arena). And this seems like a good place for me to make what is by now a commonplace observation - these overly abstract, sentimental opening ceremony shows are what is really lame, and someone needs to have the guts to put a stop to them. I guess we could not have expected the home of Celine Dion to be the ones to do it, but some country soon needs to show some balls and just say no. They are boring an stupid. The parade of nations is acceptable, and some kind of entertainment is okay (how about a musical concert drawn from the host nation?). But we really don't need cheap imitations of Cirque de Solei (especially when even expensive Cirque shows are nauseatingly self-indulgent). I guess we can blame the LA Summer Olympics in 1984 for really setting the bar at this ridiculous and absurd level, but that is no excuse for country after country driving off the same cliff. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
