Olympic Opening Ceremony: A Combination Of Spectacular Imagery And American Ignorance

For once I would like to see the host country of the Olympics do the announcing for the Games. If it weren't for my desire to blog about the Opening Ceremony, I would have had my tv on mute last night. The ignorance from Matt Lauer and Bob Costas was typical American ignorance that we see and hear at every Olympics. What do you expect? I, for one, would like to see respect being shown for everyone including the host country. But that would require someone to actually know the meaning of the word RESPECT.

Some comments that I found totally disgusting were the following:

"Iran has been a long time antagonist" - This comment was made I believe by Matt Lauer when the Iran delegation made its way into the stadium during the Parade of Nations.

"Hugo Chavez is a 'blustery' president" - I'm not sure which ass said this. This comment was made when the Venezuela delegation made its way into the stadium during the Parade of Nations.

"He changed the time zone to a half hour ahead of NYC. That's weird!!" - This comment was made about Hugo Chavez during the Parade of Nations. Again, I'm not sure if it was Lauer or Costas who said this. The ridiculous thing about that comment is that they clearly accept on face value the equally ridiculous changing of Daylight Savings Time by the U.S. Congress for the exact same reason that Hugo Chavez changed his time zone.

"So much for the Olympic Truce in this case!!" - This comment was made by Matt Lauer I believe when the Russian delegation entered the stadium during the Parade of Nations. This was made in reference to the current "war" taking place between the countries of Georgia and Russia. My questions to Lauer would be simple. Has the United States called a truce in Iraq? How about in Afghanistan? Has Israel called a truce with the Palestinians? The answer is HELL NO!! We have not, and Israel has not. Yet, Lauer feels the need to comment on the "Olympic Truce" when talking about Russia and Georgia? Pot, meet Kettle!!

Lauer kept saying that he shouldn't be talking about politics because the Olympics are not about politics. Yet he felt the need to be ignorant and snarky, and bring up political issues every chance he got.

"Would you look at that!! The boy speaks a little English." - This comment was made after a reporter interviewed Yao Ming who was holding a 9 year old Chinese boy who survived the earthquake in China back in May. Instead of focusing on the amazing story about this child, Bob Costas had to make the comment about the child speaking English.

This child's story is amazing. He survived the earthquake that killed 20 of his classmates. He dug himself out of the rubble, and went back in to save two of his classmates. When people asked him why he did that, he said that it was his job. He was a hall monitor, and it was his job to help his classmates.

Rather than praising this heroic child, Bob Costas apparently felt the need to basically mock him. Yes, he said thank you and thank you very much to the reporter. Yes, he spoke ENGLISH. And Bob? What's your point? I would like to point out that his ENGLISH was EXCELLENT!!

I will move on to other observations.

George Bush: Could the man be more disrespectful? During the performance portion of the Opening Ceremony, he wasn't paying any attention. He was shown on camera talking to Putin. If he had to express his love to his "soul mate", he should have either taken it elsewhere or waited until the ceremony was finished.

During the Parade of Nations, Bush was once again shown on camera. This time he was shown slumped in his seat with an expression of boredom on his face, his leg bouncing up and down, and he kept looking at his watch. What's the matter George? Was it past your bedtime?

When the delegation from Iraq made its way into the stadium, the camera cut to Bush again. The man looked as though he thought that he was the reason that they were there. I was totally expecting them to cut to him when Iran came out. But they didn't.

On a better note, the ceremony was amazing!! There really are no words to truly describe what it was like watching it. From the drums to the lighting of the torch, it was spectacular!!

I loved some of the outfits from various countries. I especially enjoyed a lot of the outfits from the African countries. From the vibrant colors to the plaids and design, they were by far my favorites!!

The outfits worn by the U.S. sucked. The women looked like old men golfers from the 40's or 50's. Perhaps, maybe even from the 30's. Hell, give them a pipe and they would have looked like Thurston Howell from Gilligan's Island. I saw better outfits on Project Runway when the designers had to create a look for the Opening Ceremony. Of course nobody actually wore these outfits, but they still looked a hell of a lot better!!

If you missed it, you missed an amazing show. Check out some of the images from the Olympic Opening Ceremony courtesy of Boston.com.













China put on an amazing show. Congratulations!! I look forward to seeing everything!! If the Opening Ceremony was this good, I can't wait to see the Closing Ceremony!!