Friday, August 8, 2008

I confess. I'm an Olympic junkie.

But did you see that opening ceremony? I mean, did you see that? Okay, I'm a pushover for a show with 15,000 performers (I really dug the drums. And the boxes. And the...) and a 500 foot wide LED screen and enough fireworks to power the space program for years.

Of course I'll watch all the thrilling and less than thrilling athletics competitions. What's the summer equivalent of Curling? Whatever it is I'll be glued to the set like I cared. There are more than 20 athletes there from Austin (not all USA team - some just train here) so there's a local interest.

And this time you can see any event you want live - if you are willing to get up at 2AM. Gotta go. Horseshoes begins in 30 minutes. I understand Turkmenistan has a formidable team.

4 comments:

Julie said...

Oh, yes, we watched - and marveled at it. I loved the drummers, too, but thought it was a wee bit frightening in terms of the whole "show the world how powerful we are" aspect.

I thought the huge LCD screen was amazing, especially how things on the screen would just suddenly float away. I really loved the world with the people running around the sides of it.

I must admit that I fell asleep during the parade of nations and missed the flame-lighting. I'm sure I can pick that up later today in the numerous replays.

Barbara said...

My favorites were the drummers -- and Yao Ming and the little boy. When China started and the child came out, my first thought was "that little boy is too little to be in the midst of all that havoc", but when they said how old he was, I realized that Yao is 7 1/2 ft tall and any 10 year old would look tiny beside him.

Barbara said...

PS I am a little concerned about all the things I need to do before classes start again on the 27th, with the lure of the Olympics all day every day. Not only do I have to resist the temptation to turn it on, I have to run through the living room when Dad is watching.

Rob said...

I wondered at one point what that spectacle looked like in big screen HD. We made it until the US marched and then all went to bed ... still trying to catch up from the sleepless, hot nights.