What a finale
The face ages but the pipes sound just as good as ever
At least no one got raped ….
just one more mention of how spectacular sophia loren looked. what a classic beauty!
My NBC isn’t working, le sigh. No opening ceremonies for me unless Google hosts them. I’m so bummed 
Wish I were watching with my mom (Hi Mom!)
I thought that was lame too, although not quite as lame as the marching band ski-jumper that took forever and didn’t really go anywhere.
They should have had the sparks coming out of the cows. Nothing says “Passion” like a flaming cow!
The arrow torch lighting was the '94 Lillehammer games.
The flaming arrow was at the 1992 summer games in Barcelona.
And I didn’t like the torch lighting tonight. It looked really cool, but after the final torch bearer lit that little stand on the arena floor, all the pyrotechnics must have had some kind of igniters on them, and so that isn’t the actual flame burning in the cauldron.
But then, if they did have some way of channeling the flame through pipes all over the stadium, that would be pretty cool.
The animated ski jumper and the dove were great.
Haven’t made up my mind yet about the Ferrari doing donuts.
I came in a little bit late; must have missed the Cow Waltz.
I thought the ski jumper was wicked cool. Perfect telemark landing!
I missed the Send in the Cows number because I was getting my younger son into his PJs. He got to stay up for the Parade of Nations and went to bed happy.
No Jamaica?!? Where are the Jamaicans?
The sign carriers’ dresses with the skirts shaped like an Alp - I kept going back and forth over whether that was clever or tacky. One thing’s sure: they’ll never wear those again in public!
Germany’s parade uniforms have got to be visible from the surface of the Moon.
Is this the first time the athletes have been given benches to sit on? Seems like a good idea actually, not just for their comfort but to help cut down on the squishing and crushing that goes on when you have that many excited people crammed together.
Attention Italy: we know why you handed the torch off to the four guys who narrowly beat Norway for the men’s Nordic relay on their home turf. We know why. And it’s PAYBACK TIME!!! 
To the Norskies hiding about: Did King Harald look really sick again to you guys?
Oh yeah, I meant to say: the flaming arrow was definitely the '92 Summer Games, Barcelona.
The Lillehammer flame was lit in a very boring, ordinary way that nobody remembers, because it came shortly after the torch was brought DOWN THE FLIPPIN’ SKI JUMP and into the stadium.
I missed the torch lighting! Then again, my favorite part is the March of the athletes, so I’m okay. And I agree about the flaming arrow in Barcelona, that was very intense and very memorable.
And the animated ski jumper? Really cool! It’s one of those things that works great as a stand alone segment in-between everything else that’s happening in the ceremony. Telemark!
For a program planned YEARS in advance, you’d think the dancers could have moved in sync. I’ve seen high school drill teams do better. When they were all moving together to form the ski jumper, there were a lot of odd moments. Like one guy in white running out of the head. And a single guy in blue, standing with the guys forming the skis in black. Costume malfunction?
I would have loved to see some anarchists sneak into the routine and switched to brown cloaks when the skier was bent over. Running out of his rearend would have been an epic prank! Why do these thoughts pop in my head?
And while I am bitching, may I say I hope Bode Miller falls on his ass? I’d rather see an Al Qayda skier win gold than Bode.
I’m fairly certain that it never really is, at least not in the more recent Games. Everything’s so theatrical, that if the tiniest thing went wrong and the actual torch didn’t light the big flame, it would be a disaster. I have no cite, but I’m pretty sure the big flame is ignited by pyrotechnics, etc., and it’s just well-timed to look like it’s the torch that’s doing it.
That’s what I meant by my initial comment. The very end, where the torch ignites, looked good. But the pyrotechnics leading up to it just seemed ‘fake’. As Antigen says, I’ll bet there’s a back-up system in recent Olympics. But this time it just didn’t look ‘real’. Again though, the actual ignition was nice.
I don’t watch enough of this sort of thing to critique it. But I found myself wondering how they remembered the sequence of moves. I’m pretty sure I saw headsets on the performers. Still, it was impressive to me.
Well, that’s probably true, but I still think it’s wrong, and yesterday’s ceremonies didn’t even try to hide that the torch was rigged. C’mon, this is the freakin’ Olympics; the athletes don’t get do-overs. Suck it up and light the torch with the real flame. There’s got to be a cool way to do it.
Oh, one more thing. Was I the only one thinking “thank God Y.M.C.A ended before the U.S. team came in?” If I’d seen them enter the stadium spelling out the letters with their arms I would have lost it.
Only the male figure-skaters, likely…
Sophia Loren walked into the stadium looking as if she owned the place! She was a-maz-ing. She looked as if we were all there for her. Just for her.
For those interested, this site has highlights from several recent Opening Ceremonies. You can see the famous arrow which lit the torch from Barcelona 1992.
I also found it interesting to see some of the opening cermonies from the Moscow games.
Usually their failsafe is to just pump the torch area full of gas. So that any flame anywhere near it will light the thing.
Thanks for posting that link, dalej42. I was in Mexico City during the Summer (actually Fall) Olympics. We went to the track and field finals and actually saw Dick Fosbury win the high jump. (At least I think it was the finals…I was not quite 11.) Cool to go back and look at pictures from those games. I taped the opening ceremonies last night because I wanted to be able to skip stupid parts (mostly commentary, commercials and up-close-personal interviews. Won’t get to watch it till later tonight.
GT
Brilliant! Italians love a poop joke, especially if it’s in good taste.
Yes, the OC was way lame, but aren’t they supposed to be? Spectacles of corny pop symbolism with a cast of thousands and lots of ooos and aaas?
What I liked least about it was the disco’s greatest hits parade of nations. Other than that it was very much of its type. This just made it feel like they ran out of money and ideas.