London 2012...

So, the opening ceremony last night was certainly very, um... British.

I mean, it was all right, I guess.  Honestly, I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't had the bad fortune to follow Beijing.  It feels like it'll be a century before anyone rivals that ceremony for beauty, grace, or artfulness; not to mention the sheer terrifying propaganda factor.

In comparison, last night seemed, well, cute.  And quaint.  And so very, very British.  I mean, for fuck's sake, they had a thirty-foot tall Voldemort being vanquished by an army of Mary Poppinses.  Seriously.  And all anyone in the media has talked about since last night is the spectacle of James Bond escorting the Queen (or, at least, her stunt double) into the stadium by way of a leap from a flying helicopter.  And yet, it still couldn't even begin to match even just the opening drummers from Beijing.  (All I could think when I saw that four years ago was, "I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords."  Which, I imagine, was the point.)  And, to his credit, apparently Danny Boyle knew he had no chance of rivaling Beijing in any way, which is what lead him to make a lot of the more "playful" directorial decisions he did; basically, he figured that if he couldn't beat them, then he might as well just have fun with it.

There were some highlights that I enjoyed, too.  I was really tickled that he chose to open and close the ceremony with the opening and closing tracks from Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.  I don't understand the decision at all, but I enjoyed it, simply because I never in a million years would have ever guessed that I would've heard Dark Side Of The Moon being played during the opening ceremony of an Olympiad.  I mean, wtf?  Really??  Wow.  Ok, work it then, you mad motherfucker, you.  And I was also pleased to see the cameo by Rowan Atkinson.  A British national treasure, and always hilarious.  And, again, just never, ever thought I'd see that.

Ok, enough writing about the Olympics.  Time to get back to watching them.  Which is how I hope to spend the better part of the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully, I'll find the time soon to post some of my thoughts about why I've come to love the Olympics so much.