The Olympics Thread

[canuck]

And we lost it by one. single. goal. But still, after more than 10 years of sucking, we're finally back at the top and a silver medal is a lot more than anyone had expected. We're proud of our boys, and the French won fair and square (if very very narrowly).

Great games overall, I'd say. Good arrangements, good crowds (from what I can tell from watching TV), some great results, some really fun upsets (did you see the Ugandan who won the marathon?)... hat off, London.

Congrats to Sweden on the Silver - that's great and to lose by only one goal, close game. I think the Olympics went well, the weather co-operated and everything appeared to be well organized. A job well done UK and London. Looking forward to seeing the closing ceremony, should be interesting.

 

[beer good]

Britain's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy on the games:

'Translating the British, 2012' by Carol Ann Duffy | Books | The Guardian

 

[canuck]

Hi beer good - interesting poetic commentary by Ms. Duffy.

 

[canuck]

Was a bit surprised by the closing ceremony of the Olypics. The 'Symphony of the thirty best British songs' left me wondering which timeline they were using, or maybe they said, but most of the songs I had never heard of, although pop music isn't something I listen to anyway. I remember the songs I enjoyed when I was younger and they were absent. Did recognize the John Lennon one and had read about The Spice Girls and The Who but mostly it was a whole different musical experience for me, and not one that I particularly enjoyed - a lot of it fast and frantic. The special lighting effects and choreography were well done but I would have been better to just watch and turn the sound off. I think I enjoyed the opening ceremony more.

 

[beer good]

Yeah, I was surprised at that; the opening ceremony was so good, and then... this? The music coordinator seemed to have fallen asleep between 1989 and last week, they made a huge deal of artists who were either dead or couldn't be bothered to show up ("Hey, kids, remember David Bowie? Well, he couldn't make it, but here's Kate Moss in a dress!")... They talked a lot about this being the Olympics that for young and upcoming generations, but ending it on 68-year-old Roger Daltrey singing "My Generation" took on a very different message than they intended.

And then that embarrassing moment where they ran out of music for the athletes to march in to and had to repeat the first bunch of songs... didn't someone have an iPod they could plug in?

Loved Eric Idle and his skating nuns, though. Something tells me the US broadcast won't show him, or at least not the last verse.

 

[direstraits]

I love this picture. I wonder what she looked like when she realized (finally) she was showing her displeasure at royalty!

Hell yeah, we made it to the final!

To celebrate, here's the King of Sweden cheering his team on, with the queen at his side and some random bystander caught in the crossfire:

 

[beer good]

I love this picture. I wonder what she looked like when she realized (finally) she was showing her displeasure at royalty!

Heh. I hope she didn't care. The King is a pretty easy-going guy.

Anyway, how come the Paralympics got a much better closing ceremony than the regular Olympics?