General Gao\'s Summer Olympics Thread

[Wolfman]

Man, are we overdue for this thread!

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.  I\'ve watched it 5 times now and it actually gets better every time.  I keep inviting people over to watch it and everyone flips out.  Without spoiling what happens, I\'ll just say that it is 90 minutes of the greatest creative live theater imaginable.  Equal parts Stomp, Cirque Du Soleil, Drum Corps, and every Chinese art imaginable from Calligraphy to Tai Chi to Karate to printing blocks and surely a bunch of others I\'ve never heard of.  Incredible juxtapositions of modern technology mixed with ancient chinese culture.  And all this with what must have been an unlimited budget and directed by Zhang Yimou who directed one of my favorite movies, Hero (the martial arts movie Hero).  It\'s must-see TV and almost has to be viewed in HD.  I really hope an uncut DVD comes out.

Had a USA v. China hoops party yesterday morning.  Nothing like getting the crew together at 11am on a Sunday with some Chinese food to watch...international basketball.  USA smoked \'em and had many sick dunks.  It was pretty unfair at points, and when the lead got over 30 I was kind of worried that it might strain international relations if we showed them up too much on their home court.

Awesome 4X100 men\'s swimming last night.  I won\'t spoil it.  Go find highlights.  Well worth it.    

Finally, just have to say that the only way to watch Olympics is with DVR.  Just watch everything the next night, skip all commericals and only watch what you want to see.  A lot of events only last a couple of seconds or minutes so they have to fill tons of time with features, interviews, studio analysis, and sports you don\'t necessarily want to see all so you can get to the one nugget of what you want.  I think NBC does a good job but of course every night everything is just dragged out.  If you want to see Phelps swim or anything marquee like that you know you\'re going to have to stay up until at least 11 and sit through 4-5 hours of something else.  I was watching last night and around 9PM they did a 12-minute segment of Costas interviewing President Bush (gag me) followed by commercial followed by a gymnastics segment that consisted of exactly two vaults (about 5 seconds of actual action) and then they went back to commerical.  At this point I hit record, turned it off, went to bed, and caught the 4X100 in the morning.  Perfect.  I\'ll watch tonight\'s stuff tomorrow night in 10-15 minutes.

[Klout]

bummed i missed the opening ceremony. sounds sweet.

loved watchin that dunk and alleyoop fest yesterday tho!

they are def winnin gold.

weightlifting, beach volleyball, swimming and gymnastics were pretty entertaining too.

[galenas]

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.

tottttally!

[SlimPickens]

All the Indians I work with are psyched -  they got their first individual gold in 108 year history in the Men\'s 10m Air Rifle.

[weekapaug19]

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.

tottttally!

they were cool, but they faked all the fireworks.....all created with computers

the moving block things were really cool tho, i never thought people could do that.  They said they practiced for 8 hours a day for the past 6 months to do that and this was the first time they got it correct....my question is do these people actually work?

[Wolfman]

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.

tottttally!

they were cool, but they faked all the fireworks.....all created with computers

Well, yes, but all the fireworks were actually there.  They couldn\'t fly a helicopter or blimp during fireworks because it was too dangerous, so they created the same image you would have seen if they could.  It was all there in real life and you saw the same thing everyone there did which was basically a shitload of fireworks.  And fireworks were maybe 30 seconds out of arguably the greatest 90-minute theatrical achievment in human history.  Quite frankly, if you\'re hung up on this, you have completely missed the point.  I mean geez, if someone takes you to see the Mona Lisa you would stand there and say, "Yeah it\'s good but it\'s not the real thing because they revarnished and repaired it in 1985."

[weekapaug19]

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.

tottttally!

they were cool, but they faked all the fireworks.....all created with computers

Well, yes, but all the fireworks were actually there.  They couldn\'t fly a helicopter or blimp during fireworks because it was too dangerous, so they created the same image you would have seen if they could.  It was all there in real life and you saw the same thing everyone there did which was basically a shitload of fireworks.  And fireworks were maybe 30 seconds out of arguably the greatest 90-minute theatrical achievment in human history.  Quite frankly, if you\'re hung up on this, you have completely missed the point.  I mean geez, if someone takes you to see the Mona Lisa you would stand there and say, "Yeah it\'s good but it\'s not the real thing because they revarnished and repaired it in 1985."

I didn\'t see the whole thing so I can only comment on part of it, but I\'m not hung up on that at all, from what I saw was really cool.

I thought I read that the people there even had to watch the fireworks on screen (created by computers) so there really wasn\'t that many fireworks, but I could have read the article wrong, i basically skimmed alot of it.

[Wolfman]

There was SO much more to the performance that this point is worthless.  You might as well walk out of the sickest Breakfast show ever saying, "Great show but Chris forgot to sing a vocal harmony in the second chorus of Hard Luck Harry."

In other news, the only thing better than women\'s beach volleyball is women\'s beach volleyball in the rain

[kartoon42]

all i gotta say is micheal phelps is a fucking fish

[davepeck]

speaking of the opening ceremonies, this is pretty hilarious:



http://gizmodo.com/5035456/blue-screen-of-death-strikes-birds-nest-during-opening-ceremonies-torch-lighting

[Wolfman]

That was done intentionally to symbolize the Communist regime "crashing" under the advancements of modern technology.

Just kidding!  

Phelps is a beast.  He\'s not even remotely close to getting beat in individual events.  And these water-repellant swimsuits really are insane.  Not only are they cutting huge chunks of time off of every world record, but the top 2-3 finishers in every race are all beating the world record at the same time.  Imagine if Nike made a new running shoe that eliminated 80% of all friction with the ground, and the runners started putting up 9.5s second 100M runs, 3m:30 miles, and 1h:40 marathons because of the shoe.  That would be the running equivalent.  It\'s almost silly.  

I want to play team handball.

[FrankZappa]

First of all, the first 90 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies were the greatest spectacle I\'ve ever seen.  I have never been so riveted by anything on television that wasn\'t a live sports event.

tottttally!

they were cool, but they faked all the fireworks.....all created with computers

fake fireworks story

and,
"A "grueling competition" had been waged to choose the girl who sang, but at the last minute the "swap" was made because the seven year old girl simply did not portray the image that the Chinese wanted to convey to the world, she had buck teeth according to the story.

[Drew_Kingsley]

From ESPN.com:

Olympic officials forbid French athletes to wear badges that said "for a better world," ruling this violated strictures against political statements. Apparently the notion that the world should be "better" is too controversial for the Olympics!

And yes, handball looks like pretty much the most fun sport ever.

[Wolfman]

A "grueling competition"[/URL] had been waged to choose the girl who sang, but at the last minute the "swap" was made because the seven year old girl simply did not portray the image that the Chinese wanted to convey to the world, she had buck teeth according to the story.

Smart move by the producers.  You’re trying to put on the best face for your country (literally) in front of a worldwide audience.  If it were here and you saw an ugly kid up there singing God Bless America in front of the largest live television audience in world history, you would wonder "how did they pick this kid?".  It’s one thing if it’s a school play and you’re trying to give all the kids a chance to participate.  This is anything but that.  This is a one-shot deal that is mega-business both financially and politically.  You don’t blow $200 million dollars on a politically-charged ceremony and invite the whole world to watch, then feature mediocre looking people in key roles.  You have to cast your show properly at this level.  Will Ferrel doesn’t play Anakin Skywalker.  Skinny guys don’t play on the offensive line in the NFL.  A kid who doesn’t look good doesn’t sing patriotic songs in front of the rest of the world unless he/she is a hero or victim of tragedy.  That’s just how it goes.  Like it or not it’s proper politics.  The kid who walked out with Yao Ming when the Chinese team came into the stadium was quite ugly and bruised, but he was a survivor of the recent earthquake so that’s OK.

[Yoda]

A "grueling competition"[/URL] had been waged to choose the girl who sang, but at the last minute the "swap" was made because the seven year old girl simply did not portray the image that the Chinese wanted to convey to the world, she had buck teeth according to the story.

Smart move by the producers.  You’re trying to put on the best face for your country (literally) in front of a worldwide audience.  If it were here and you saw an ugly kid up there singing God Bless America in front of the largest live television audience in world history, you would wonder "how did they pick this kid?".  It’s one thing if it’s a school play and you’re trying to give all the kids a chance to participate.  This is anything but that.  This is a one-shot deal that is mega-business both financially and politically.  You don’t blow $200 million dollars on a politically-charged ceremony and invite the whole world to watch, then feature mediocre looking people in key roles.  You have to cast your show properly at this level.  Will Ferrel doesn’t play Anakin Skywalker.  Skinny guys don’t play on the offensive line in the NFL.  A kid who doesn’t look good doesn’t sing patriotic songs in front of the rest of the world unless he/she is a hero or victim of tragedy.  That’s just how it goes.  Like it or not it’s proper politics.  The kid who walked out with Yao Ming when the Chinese team came into the stadium was quite ugly and bruised, but he was a survivor of the recent earthquake so that’s OK.

Are you serious?  Not sure what your definition of an ugly kid is, but the original girl is not ugly, she may need some work done on her teeth, but that\'s really vain.  If they switch the girl at the last minute for asthetic reasons, I understand, but then have the new girl sing rather than have her pull a milli vanilli to the a recorded version of the first girl.

While we\'re at it, do you think that it\'s ethical for China to spend over $200 million and ship out Beijing residents when millions on millions of it\'s people are poor to begin with?

I just find it weird that you\'re trying to substantiate China\'s poor decisions.