Today has been a lazy day of procrastination...for the past week I've been very adult (cleaning out a garage! two dentist appointments in as many days!), proactive in the job search (two malls walked through! various websites visited!) and decided to take today as a day off; after all, the Olympics opened last night AND it is BBC America's Sat-Nerd-Day! Except for the lunch break I took with my grandmother and cousin to the local barbecue place, I have spent the entire day flipping between the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America and the Olympic Games on NBC.
When we left for lunch, Kazakhstan won the Gold in the Men's Road Race in Cycling, Ryan Lochte secured the second fastest time in the Men's 400m Medley with Michael Phelps barely sliding into the eighth fastest time (he won his heat by 7/100s of a second and was SIX SECONDS slower than he was in Beijing), we managed to get at least one name in the Women's 100m Butterfly (I honestly don't remember much about the Women's qualifying heats - I really liked the Doctor Who episode that was on at that point...oops) and the USA Women's Basketball team was ahead of Croatia by six points. I missed the end of that game, but I'm hoping we were able to hold onto our tenuous lead.
But what I really want to discuss is last night's Opening Ceremonies. I missed the first half hour, but was able to watch most of it, and holy cow!! I got chills from the pure theatricality of it.
Kenneth Branagh is one of my favorite British actors, and to have him "orchestrating" the transition from the rural England to the Industrial Revolution was absolutely beautiful. I loved the representation of the Industrial Revolution overtaking the green fields and turning the sky black with smoke. And then the forging of the Rings!! Oh goodness, I loved this part. The use of light and pyrotechnics to simulate fire was absolutely brilliant. And then the sparking ring was raised to the sky to meet four other "freshly forged" Olympic Rings and create the Olympic Symbol...oh lord it took my breath away. The rest of the performance bit was enjoyable, I liked the beds with lit mattresses, blankets and pillows during the "Child's Nightmare" section. I also loved the LED screens attached to the audience seats. It was such an innovative way to integrate the audience into the performance...the whole lighting concept behind the Ceremonies actually reminded me why I was so passionate about lighting to begin with.
During "Frankie and June Say Thanks Tim" it felt a bit chaotic and disorganized, but I liked the music. There was a hint of the T.A.R.D.I.S. noise near the end of one section, and my grandmother and cousin thought I was going mad. HOWEVER, it was confirmed this morning that they had planned a Doctor Who segment that had to be cancelled due to time constraints, so, I was NOT hearing things!! I have yet to tell them this, but I doubt they care anymore - it's just my stupid self who has held on to this.
Speaking of the Doctor, I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the absence of David Tennant. I was really hoping that would be their nod to such a cultural staple - have the guy we thought was the final runner stumble, then David Tennant would appear out of nowhere to keep the flame from touching the ground and carry it to the cauldron. How EPIC would that have been?? But I also acknowledge how ridiculous that actually is to anyone who is not an avid Whovian, and so I really liked the reality.
It touched my heart that the next generation of athletes - six or seven teenagers who are hoping to be Olympians in 2016 - were the ones who carried the torch around the stadium and up to the cauldron. And that cauldron concept was mind-blowing. Throughout the entire Parade of Countries, my grandmother was continually inquiring about the the strange brass things that the small children were carrying. No one had explained it, and yet every country had one. Come to find out, they were brass leaves of a tree used to make up the cauldron. It's hard to explain how they did it, but basically when the runners approached the tree all the limbs were fanned out, and once the runners lit their respective leaves, the leaves lifted up and became the cauldron. It was absolutely beautiful.
Also, side note, my cousin Thomas and I were keeping track of athletes throughout the Parade of Nations - Australia brought 441, USA brought 519 and Great Britain has 558. Compared to the countries (some of whom had millions of people in the population - not tiny countries) who brought maybe a dozen athletes...I like those odds. GO USA!!!
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