I guess we all think of ourselves - we paddlers - as athletes. Certainly it's an athletic endeavor even at its most sedate and when taken to DougLloydian proportions it's clearly athletic. So it's easy to be sympathetic to athletes with other skills... and the international forum for showing them off. Not too far away from me right now the 2010 Winter Olympics are beginning; not without some tragedy. That tragedy notwithstanding, the opening ceremonies were incredible. I still cannot figure out how some of those tricks with light were done but they were amazing. Instead of presenting a world shattering image like Beijing the Vancouver director managed to convey a personalized - almost private - view of Canada and the people who call themselves Canadians. The Inuit on a trek across the ice under the Aurora, Orcas swimming across the stage, salmon returning to spawn, totem poles turning into trees, trees turning into mountains and most of all a boy flying across the prairie. It was stupendous. Bravo! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On 13/02/2010 3:03 AM, Craig Jungers wrote: > I guess we all think of ourselves - we paddlers - as athletes. Certainly > it's an athletic endeavor even at its most sedate and when taken to > DougLloydian proportions it's clearly athletic. So it's easy to be > sympathetic to athletes with other skills... and the international forum for > showing them off. > > Not too far away from me right now the 2010 Winter Olympics are beginning; > not without some tragedy. That tragedy notwithstanding, the opening > ceremonies were incredible. I still cannot figure out how some of those > tricks with light were done but they were amazing. Instead of presenting a > world shattering image like Beijing the Vancouver director managed to convey > a personalized - almost private - view of Canada and the people who call > themselves Canadians. > > The Inuit on a trek across the ice under the Aurora, Orcas swimming across > the stage, salmon returning to spawn, totem poles turning into trees, trees > turning into mountains and most of all a boy flying across the prairie. > > It was stupendous. Bravo! > > > Craig Jungers > Moses Lake, WA > www.nwkayaking.net I agree completely. The orcas swimming and the totem poles into trees were two of the highlights for me. Just for fun, I watched NBC's coverage to see what one American station had to say about it, and was gratified to see that the commentator was also impressed. He made the comment that, after Beijing, what could you do? It wasn't really in the picture to try and outdo them, so the answer was to go in a completely different direction. I gather from the comments, that the man who designed the show had spoken to the media and given them some background, which helped the commentary greatly. My wife came home from a ladies-only party and said she thought it was the worst opening she could possibly imagine. She was "bored" by the whole thing. So there's obviously no satisfying everyone. (Or no explaining other people's taste.) -- Darryl *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I have never watched these types of ceremonies before, and only watched this one because we were invited to watch with neighbours. (Our TV is larger so that was backwards but otherwise . . . .) We laughed and cringed a lot, groaned too. Laughed at the "costumes" that many athletes were saddled with. Groaned at the singer Nikki whatever who did the American thing of slowing down and customizing O Canada--and she was not that great a singer anyway. Laughed uproariously at the truck carrying Gretzky to the cauldron--because it clearly had one headlight burnt out. (Some GM/Chevrolet exec somewhere is still banging his head . . . .) But, the "show" was quite spectacular. I didn't get a lot of the symbolism, but then I am a technocrat-type of person. Except for the company, I would have preferred to be home working at the computer. GaryJ On 13/02/2010 10:15 AM, Darryl Johnson wrote: > My wife came home from a ladies-only party and said she thought it was > the worst opening she could possibly imagine. She was "bored" by the > whole thing. > > So there's obviously no satisfying everyone. (Or no explaining other > people's taste.) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Glad you liked it Craig. I missed it, as was away from TV being inspired at Freya's presentation here in Victoria. Canada is a cool place with pretty cool people. Sorry you felt you got treated so badly on Westcoastpaddler. Often it is Americans bashing Canadians on the net, so maybe it was a redress. :-) Hopefully these games will make us all closer somehow. Mike, from WCP and EcoMarine was part of a top secret video shoot that was used for the recent tourism video coinciding with the Olympics and used to open the celebration. Check it out: http://vimeo.com/9417728 _Now_ we have obligatory kayak content. And hopefully the only bashing you get is Canadian's winning all the Gold metals - okay, that's just a bit optimistic. Doug Craig said: I guess we all think of ourselves - we paddlers - as athletes. Certainly it's an athletic endeavor even at its most sedate and when taken to DougLloydian proportions it's clearly athletic. So it's easy to be sympathetic to athletes with other skills... and the international forum for showing them off. Not too far away from me right now the 2010 Winter Olympics are beginning; not without some tragedy. That tragedy notwithstanding, the opening ceremonies were incredible. I still cannot figure out how some of those tricks with light were done but they were amazing. Instead of presenting a world shattering image like Beijing the Vancouver director managed to convey a personalized - almost private - view of Canada and the people who call themselves Canadians. The Inuit on a trek across the ice under the Aurora, Orcas swimming across the stage, salmon returning to spawn, totem poles turning into trees, trees turning into mountains and most of all a boy flying across the prairie. It was stupendous. Bravo! *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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