Watch Olympics opening ceremony online?

[imron]

Does anyone remember Milli Vanilli?

Blame it on the rain

[imron]

And in other news of opening ceremony stuff ups, as Nelson would say, HaHa

[cdn_in_bj]

Blame it on the rain

Not much rain here - I'd blame it on the smog.

[Meng Lelan]

Anything about the closing ceremony - is it also planned by Zhang Yimou too and when will it be on tv?

[roddy]

George Bush is enjoying himself.

Not sure about the closing ceremony - they'll do a handover of the torch and flag to UK representatives (who are probably going to now outsource the entire event to the Chinese anyway) and presumably they'll have to hoist Li Ning back up to blow the torch out.

[Alewife]

The footsteps were digital???? Nooo... I'm crushed.

[imron]

The footsteps were digital??

Apparently the firework footsteps actually existed, it's just that the organisers thought it would be too dangerous to have a helicopter film them live, and so what was seen on TV was computer generated footage, except for the last footstep outside the stadium.

[The Elf Piper]

I think the US announcers even said that they were added but they sort of brushed over it, and it was so cool I didn't care.

[LaoWai]

I missed the opening ceremony here in Hawaii due to program time shifting by NBC. Is there any link to archived on-line video footage of it?

[yigedeguoren]

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who found the German commentating awful. When they replayed the opening ceremony the next day, they replaced the commentators. Lots of negative comments, apparently.

No, you weren't. I can't remember worse commentating. I really don't why she got the job...

Thankfully I watched together with a few Chinese guys and had my personal commentators all around me

[The Elf Piper]

Ooh, looky here:

http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=4658

I can only read one or two words though. What is included? 2 DVDs sounds promising.

[Outofin]

I prefer HD.

[roddy]

Closing ceremony tomorrow - I'm looking forward to London's 8 minute slot, but if you can't wait the papers have basically written it down for you.

[Guest realmayo]

minor spoiler coming up!!!

As the duet climaxes, Beckham rises up on a third platform clutching the football flanked by a cellist and violinist in Team GB kit, and kicks the ball into the athletes packed in the centre field of the stadium. The bus departs, transformed into an ersatz carnival float.

... and then the killer last line:

Stephen Powell, the creative director, said the intention was to create a quintessentially British moment.

It's true, there are times you can barely squeeze onto London buses for all the professional footballers chatting with classically trained musicians. Any other quintessentially British moments they might have considered?

[liuzhou]

But they are going to play the "Tops of the Pops" theme tune. Is there anything from this century?

(A Chinese friend asked me today what Beckham is going to do.I said that, according to the reports I had read, he is scheduled to kick a ball. She answered, "Can he still do that? I was so worried he would sing.")

[Shadowdh]

Any other quintessentially British moments they might have considered?

probably a group of chavs board the bus and begin stabbing random nerdy classical music players gaily talking with football players... doesnt quite make the same impact I guess...

[roddy]

Live on the BBC in half an hour - anyone else watching?

[skylee]

i am trying to. but the pre-show looks boring.

[roddy]

Poor you, we've got an interview with . . . David Beckham. He's not sure how he'd have coped with the heat, and he thinks Team GB has done very well.

[skylee]

great countdown fireworks