OT - Olympic opening ceremonies

Vancouver has certainly gotten things off to a band. What a beautiful opening ceremony. I adored the way they used lights and lighting to suggest mood, time and place. The sense that although you were in an enclosed dome, you seemed to be outdoor.

I was very proud too, of the way they incorporated all sorts of Canadian celebrities, both new and old into the ceremony.

And, boy - don't we have some wonderful women's voices, Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Joni Mitchell, Meesha Brugger-Gossman (the the guys weren't too shabby either!).

I do wish the Canadian anthem had been sung at a more appropriate pace.

And, of course, there was the very sad moment when the whole crowd was silent in memory of the young Georgian athlete killed in a luge training run that morning.

Originally, I thought I'd just watch a few minutes, but I was glued to the set right until Wayne Gretzky lit the cauldron on the shoreline matching the one inside.

Let the fames begin!

MargW

i did the same to watch just a few minutes and let the pvr get the rest and watch later but ended up watching it fully, except almost missed the last few minutes cause of the way the pvr doesn't see if program is still going but rather just the time it is suppose to be the start and end times and with the delay they had at the end i had to quickly add the last 10-15 minutes as a separate record.

the whales were very surprising. at first i thought they were real when they had the air hole blow as the whales passed over. the 3D effect was great.

the singing was great also. i never knew kd lang sang like that, she really surprised me on how long she can hold a note. i agree that that the national anthem could have been better, vocal ok but didn't feel like she sang the right song, nothing to stand up for.

something i did find out next day is that Wayne Gretzky lit the inside with the others, and then lit the outside flame by himself. since he said in an interview today that they trained at least 4 times before they did the live flame lighting and knew how it was to happen with him lighting both, he should have stayed back cause of the inside problems and let the lady do the inside and he then would still light the last flame outside. might be just my thought, but it ended up looking greedy with him doing both and she didn't have one to do at all!!