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This is an account of life in an Olympic city. Capturing the final preparations before the Opening Ceremony as well as the Games themselves.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
The view from TV
Having declined the chance to go to the opening ceremony by preferring to see it as it is truly intended to be seen by the billions of people worldwide on TV, there are a few things that struck me about yesterday's broadcast. This, of course, refers to the version shown on Greek TV, uncut and without any ads (unlike NBC and other commercial stations which just butchered it in their own usual fashion).
- The overall effect was strong; particularly the stunning, sophisticated and highly stylised beginning part depicting the history of Greece in a very theatrical manner. I am not sure how this played to the global audience as some of it really needed the proper cultural context to be appreciated properly, but hopefully most of it was accessible. The theatricality of the spectacle and the lack of any cheap tricks to appeal to a mass audience was a very welcome surprise.
- The parade of nations was a snore, as always. Despite the welcome introduction of a dj set, this part of the ceremony needs to be seriously curtailed; perhaps a half an hour with just the flag-bearers parading might keep the audience's interest at a higher level. As it stood however, the 90 minutes it took for all 202 countries to march through really felt like eons. Welcome surprises were the polite cheering of the US team, the huge uproar for Portugal, Iraq, Palestine and Turkey and the obvious delight of most of the athletes entering the stadium.
- The lighting of the torch was anticlimactic; lacking the visually sublime Barcelona flaming arrow aesthetics and the moving sight of Muhammad Ali in Atlanta, this felt a little flat and uninspired. It did not help that the windsurfer chosen to light the flame lacks any sort of emotional appeal to the country; perhaps Nick Gallis would have been a much better choice.
- The use of music throughout was superb; nicely woven Xatzidakis songs throughout in both standard versions as well as the reworked electronic versions by K.Bhta, but also a rich taste of the epic music of Theodorakis and a smattering of Xarhakos put smiles on many peoples' faces. Only Bjork felt out of place - terrible song and no connection to the rest of the ceremony, but nevertheless the overall impression was overwhelmingly positive.
- The dj addition was a nice touch, although more could have been done to integrate the music and the visuals with the parade.
- The Greek commentators were particularly appalling, from the old-fashioned and pretentious cultural descriptions down to the competition as to who would provide more useless encyclopedia facts about countries and show off their hastily acquired geography skills (not that they didn't manage to confuse the Caribbean with Central America one too many times).
Afterwards, Athens was full of people returning to the city centre with the ceremony booklets in their hand and a huge smile on their face. At 2am however, only the locals continued to frequent the local bars and eateries, and the doping scandal was again top in peoples' conversations. However, the ceremony has made everyone here proud and will not be easily forgotten; we all now have high hopes for the closing party and would like to think that parts of the cultural aspects of the country that we are rightly proud of were appreciated yesterday.
Comments:
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I saw the ceremony on NBC in San Francisco, where I live. How ironic that after all the criticism leveled at Greece ahead of the Olympics by the mainstream US media, it was NBC’s coverage of the magnificent Opening Ceremony that so miserably failed to rise to the occasion, and that felt so pathetically unprepared. With its hatchet-job editing, its inane, condescending, utterly clueless and occasionally insulting (e.g.: the mocking of the Greek presidential guard) commentary, the constant commercial breaks for $19.99 phone plans and hyperactive bladder medication, NBC managed to rip-out the soul and violate the spirit of what was without question the most stunning, inspirational and meaningful Opening Ceremony ever, and a true artistic triumph.
# posted by 
: 7:17 am
: 7:17 am
OK, it was nice. What, if anything, have we gained from it? More specifically: Are we likely to be even slightly more trusting of stupendously expensive management? And, are we likely to be even slightly more tusting towards young management?
---
Solon
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Solon
# posted by : 4:14 pm
: 4:14 pm
I thought it was a beautiful Opening Ceremony. The stadium looked very dramatic, it's a wonderful design. The whole panoply of Greek civilization thing was very well done. Sets, lighting, costumes - all fabulous.
The parade of athletes is very long and somewhat tedious but there's no escaping it. I can remember when it was much more of a march with the groups filing in in military formation. The casual approach is certainly more fun for the athletes and TV viewers. I wonder whether it makes it faster or slower?
I don't like speeches in general but thought that Rogge's was dull even as bad speeches go. Did he have to bring up the doping thing? I mean, where's your sense of occassion?
I couldn't help but think that, particularly in its prone position, the "cauldron" looked like a big cigarette (or worse!). The lighting was suitably dramatic and the fireworks looked exciting as well.
All in all a very good production. Organizers, volunteers and all Greeks should be proud.
TV coverage is what it is. I read yeterday that this Olympics is generating more TV coverage in the US than ever before. It works out to about 70 hours of coverage per day between NBC, MSNBC, Bravo Telemundo and a host of other cable networks.
In fairness, I thought Katie Couric was pretty good on opening night. Bob Kostas is a dolt but after a while you just tune them out. Commercial advertising is up in part because there's so much more time available but also because many of the larger US sponsors decided to scale back their presence at the games themselves and beef up their telepresence instead.
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The parade of athletes is very long and somewhat tedious but there's no escaping it. I can remember when it was much more of a march with the groups filing in in military formation. The casual approach is certainly more fun for the athletes and TV viewers. I wonder whether it makes it faster or slower?
I don't like speeches in general but thought that Rogge's was dull even as bad speeches go. Did he have to bring up the doping thing? I mean, where's your sense of occassion?
I couldn't help but think that, particularly in its prone position, the "cauldron" looked like a big cigarette (or worse!). The lighting was suitably dramatic and the fireworks looked exciting as well.
All in all a very good production. Organizers, volunteers and all Greeks should be proud.
TV coverage is what it is. I read yeterday that this Olympics is generating more TV coverage in the US than ever before. It works out to about 70 hours of coverage per day between NBC, MSNBC, Bravo Telemundo and a host of other cable networks.
In fairness, I thought Katie Couric was pretty good on opening night. Bob Kostas is a dolt but after a while you just tune them out. Commercial advertising is up in part because there's so much more time available but also because many of the larger US sponsors decided to scale back their presence at the games themselves and beef up their telepresence instead.
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