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You are here: Home / Open Threads / So I Nailed That

So I Nailed That

by John Cole|  July 27, 201211:52 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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So yes, I may have snickered a touch when they lit the torch with Pink Floyd’s Eclipse from the Dark Side of the Moon.

BTW- I loved the lighting ceremony. Thought it was very cool.

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72Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    July 27, 2012 at 11:54 pm

    Nothing like the classic Pink Floyd movies of the ’40s, with all the suspense and the snappy dialogue.

  2. 2.

    different-church-lady

    July 27, 2012 at 11:55 pm

    When do the Spice Girls go on?

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    July 27, 2012 at 11:58 pm

    Couldn’t get the rights to “Money?”

  4. 4.

    foodriots

    July 27, 2012 at 11:59 pm

    That’s exactly the sort of comment one would expect from someone living life as an observer from a computer screen reading Rolling Stone and actually believing it when they write a story that global food riots are just around the corner.

    In other words, get a life.

  5. 5.

    different-church-lady

    July 28, 2012 at 12:02 am

    Wait a minute… there’s a good Pink Floyd movie?

  6. 6.

    David Koch

    July 28, 2012 at 12:07 am

    Ah, fuck.

    U just ruined it for everyone on the west coast.

  7. 7.

    pseudonymous in nc

    July 28, 2012 at 12:07 am

    “Bonkers” seems to have been the preferred term. I liked Marina Hyde’s tweet: “I can’t believe this country is allowed nuclear weapons.”

  8. 8.

    Lavocat

    July 28, 2012 at 12:08 am

    McCartney was as cringeworthy as ever. And he looked like shit. Good christ!

    Four words: Best. Lighting. Ceremony. Evah!

    Only thing missing was a giant inflatable pig floating over the stadium.

  9. 9.

    Tripod

    July 28, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Which one is Pink?

  10. 10.

    Tom The First

    July 28, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Well, I fell asleep and woke up right when they lit the torch… my sleep-endured reverie only enhanced what was a somewhat surreal moment. Thought it was awesome.

  11. 11.

    BGinCHI

    July 28, 2012 at 12:11 am

    Mushy peas.

  12. 12.

    Tsukune

    July 28, 2012 at 12:17 am

    They showed the inflatable pig floating in the sky during the pre-ceremony bit where they went down the Thames.

  13. 13.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    July 28, 2012 at 12:17 am

    @Lavocat: There was an inflatable pink pig floating above the city in the opening montage. And McCartney sounded like shite.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    July 28, 2012 at 12:19 am

    __
    __
    How come we’re not seeing any criticism or advertising about Romney raising money in foreign capitals?

    I’m surprised that’s even legal — if it is — but whatever it’s legality, can you imagine what the outcry would be if a Democratic Presidential candidate were raising money outside of the country?

    Why aren’t we attacking Mitt on this?

    .

  15. 15.

    The Dangerman

    July 28, 2012 at 12:20 am

    @David Koch:

    U just ruined it for everyone on the west coast.

    Indeed; careful with these posts, Eugene.

  16. 16.

    maven

    July 28, 2012 at 12:21 am

    So now you’re going to Lord your Time Zone over the rest of us?

  17. 17.

    Wag

    July 28, 2012 at 12:21 am

    I had no idea Sebastian Coe was a Lord. Very cool.

  18. 18.

    Gravenstone

    July 28, 2012 at 12:22 am

    @foodriots: Sayeth the anonymous jackass hiding behind his own PC screen…

  19. 19.

    Wag

    July 28, 2012 at 12:24 am

    @The Dangerman:

    FTW

  20. 20.

    HelpThe99ers

    July 28, 2012 at 12:25 am

    Barcelona, 1992. Archer. Cauldron – waaaayyy up in the nosebleed section.

    One shot. A long, slow, beautiful arc.

    Whoosh.

    Best. torch. ever.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIl_3sYPzsQ

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 28, 2012 at 12:25 am

    @BGinCHI: Spotted dick.

    @JGabriel: IIRC Obama did a fundraiser in Paris in 2008. As long as the donors are US citizens, it is perfectly legal.

  22. 22.

    Ash Can

    July 28, 2012 at 12:27 am

    Oh, fuck y’all, I had fun watching this silly, pretty pageantry. Some of those national costumes were really lovely. And the queen and her corgis are just too cute for words.

    Ash Can + a few beers and a shot of — what else? — gin.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    July 28, 2012 at 12:28 am

    @JGabriel: They aready attacked PBO for attending a fundraiser in Paris that he didn’t attend.

    ETA: Not the one in 2008, earlier this month.

  24. 24.

    Ash Can

    July 28, 2012 at 12:28 am

    @HelpThe99ers: Yes, that was grand.

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    July 28, 2012 at 12:29 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    As long as the donors are US citizens, it is perfectly legal.

    The optics still suck. Romney parties with rich donors in Europe while Americans suffer at home?

    I mean, seriously, that’s a bullseye as big as a continent.

    .

  26. 26.

    satanicpanic

    July 28, 2012 at 12:29 am

    Has America won all the medals yet?

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 28, 2012 at 12:30 am

    @JGabriel: Again, the Obama 2008 Paris one is the difficulty.

  28. 28.

    JGabriel

    July 28, 2012 at 12:30 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    They aready attacked PBO for attending a fundraiser in Paris that he didn’t attend.

    So we have truth on our side and the GOP doesn’t. Where’s the downside?

    .

  29. 29.

    namekarB

    July 28, 2012 at 12:31 am

    @NotMax:

    Couldn’t get the rights to “Money?”

    That would have made a lot of heads explode. Thanks for the vision.

  30. 30.

    satanicpanic

    July 28, 2012 at 12:32 am

    @JGabriel: I lol’d for real

  31. 31.

    Origuy

    July 28, 2012 at 12:32 am

    I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the ceremony. I did find a cool clip of the fireworks; no narration.

  32. 32.

    El Cid

    July 28, 2012 at 12:32 am

    London Opening Ceremonies End With Traditional Lighting Of Olympic Stadium

  33. 33.

    Cassidy

    July 28, 2012 at 12:32 am

    @Ash Can: Here, fucking here.

  34. 34.

    eco2geek

    July 28, 2012 at 12:33 am

    What genius at NBC thought letting Ryan effing Seacrest do interviews was a good idea? Instead of Sports Illustrated, we get the National Enquirer.

    It warmed my cold, cynical heart just a tiny bit that they actually gave a shout out to both kid’s lit and the National Health Service.

    Having Lauer and Vieira there to explain things was actually good, I thought.

  35. 35.

    Lavocat

    July 28, 2012 at 12:36 am

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: OMFG. I was JOKING! You’re SERIOUS!? I obviously missed that. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Still, a bit heavy on the Floyd, one would think.

    Did I also miss some massive wall being broken down on stage?

    Just a tad derivative, if you ask me.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 28, 2012 at 12:36 am

    @JGabriel:

    The optics still suck. Romney parties with rich donors in Europe while Americans suffer at home?

    that’s the meat of it, Romney isn’t hosting students, teachers, spouses of foreign nationals… I’m sure there are a couple of dozen reasons US voters live abroad for months or years that I’m not thinking of. Romney is meeting with the Fabulous Fabs and their ilk. IIRC, the US citizen head of Barclays who quickly resigned when the LIBOR manipulations became public was one of the named hosts of that fund-raiser.

  37. 37.

    Todd

    July 28, 2012 at 12:37 am

    I still like that Meredith Viera worked “money shot” and “The Queen” into the same sentence.

  38. 38.

    Lavocat

    July 28, 2012 at 12:37 am

    @The Dangerman: Cute. One of these days, you’re going to set the controls for the heart of the sun, and then you’ll be on the thin ice.

  39. 39.

    Don K

    July 28, 2012 at 12:37 am

    Well, I haven’t watched an opening or closing ceremony in a while, and downhill skiing, ski jumping, luge, and bobsled are more my style for spectator sports, but still, playing Eclipse shows someone in the programming department of the organizing committee either has one hell of a sense of humor or doesn’t have a fucking clue.

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    July 28, 2012 at 12:39 am

    __
    __
    Omnes Omnibus:

    Again, the Obama 2008 Paris one is the difficulty.

    Are you sure?

    I’ve been looking and haven’t found anything credible to verify that yet. The first page of a Google search for “Obama Paris Fundraiser” only yields hits from wingnut sites like brietbart, newsbusters, and Jim Hoft @ GatewayPundit.

    .

  41. 41.

    satanicpanic

    July 28, 2012 at 12:40 am

    @JGabriel: I believe that was a wingnut myth. He wasn’t actually there. Or so I heard, who can follow this stuff?

  42. 42.

    The Dangerman

    July 28, 2012 at 12:42 am

    @eco2geek:

    What genius at NBC thought letting Ryan effing Seacrest do interviews was a good idea?

    Another indeed; did he have to tell the little gymnasts that Justin Bieber was sending them his package?

  43. 43.

    Thomas DeVito

    July 28, 2012 at 12:43 am

    I loved the festivities, personally. Then again, I’m an admitted anglophile, and would probably love whatever they put on.

  44. 44.

    satanicpanic

    July 28, 2012 at 12:44 am

    Found Paul Mccartney singing Hey Jude on Youtube- ouch. It must suck to reach the age when you can’t sing your own song well anymore.

  45. 45.

    pseudonymous in nc

    July 28, 2012 at 12:47 am

    @HelpThe99ers:

    One shot. A long, slow, beautiful arc.

    That missed, but looked good.

    NBC cut out the ‘Abide With Me’ memorial interlude and showed a Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps instead. That’s the ‘context’ that they didn’t want to deprive viewers of in a live broadcast.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 28, 2012 at 12:49 am

    @JGabriel:
    @satanicpanic: Oddly enough, all I find on it is rightie sites. OTOH, I do remember it from then. Obama was not present; does that make a difference?

  47. 47.

    satanicpanic

    July 28, 2012 at 12:54 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’re right, the media will say both sides do it.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    July 28, 2012 at 12:54 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not to the wingnuts.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    July 28, 2012 at 12:54 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Irish soda crackers = spotted mick.

    (h/t Posh Nosh)

  50. 50.

    scav

    July 28, 2012 at 12:55 am

    @pseudonymous in nc: . . . I liked Marina Hyde’s tweet: “I can’t believe this country is allowed nuclear weapons.”

    hhhmmmm. Country that pairs Simon Rattle with Mr. Bean, sets off a bunch of fireworks and seems to indulge in synchronized bed jumping about nationalized Sozialized! medicine or a set of people that can’t distinguish Faux from a news station … who do I send the nuclear codes to . . .

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 28, 2012 at 12:56 am

    @Steeplejack: Disturbing.

  52. 52.

    dead existentialist

    July 28, 2012 at 12:58 am

    OMG! The stadium lights look like the top of the pyramid with the eye in it on the back of a dollar bill so that must mean the Illuminati are up to something or something-something. Here’s the youtube video that I watched for about one of the 14 minutes it runs.

    Let me know what happens.

    Plus, also, too, I hate NBC with the heat of a thousand suns for their horseshit coverage. Seriously, how can you fuck up the Olympics? And yet they do it over and over again. Grrrrr.

  53. 53.

    Ash Can

    July 28, 2012 at 1:03 am

    @pseudonymous in nc: Thanks for that link.

  54. 54.

    Jon H

    July 28, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Nerdsquee: Tim Berners Lee in the ceremony, at a desk in front of a NeXT Cube, NeXT monitor, and NeXT keyboard and mouse.

    (Although I think the monitor was modified to house a light. It was glowing bright yellow, while a real one would be a more muted blue, being a monochrome monitor.)

  55. 55.

    Dexter's new approach

    July 28, 2012 at 2:01 am

    I thought the 1st hour or so was pretty awful. Like a small art play theme on a huge stage. Or the film Synecdoche, New York. Or a Plink Floyd show gone wrong. I mean how many outside the UK got half the stuff? Well executed though. The 2nd half was very cool.

    I suggested at the end that they should go with Young Lust, but seconds later it was a song from Dark of the Moon. So Close.

  56. 56.

    suzanne

    July 28, 2012 at 2:03 am

    That’s it. I’m going as Rafalca for Halloween.

  57. 57.

    freelancer

    July 28, 2012 at 2:14 am

    @suzanne:

    I’ll meet up with you in this get up.

  58. 58.

    vera lynn

    July 28, 2012 at 2:15 am

    Being a huge Floyd fan, my favorite was the pig flying over Battersea at the beginning with Breathe (Reprise) playing. But I did love Eclipse too :)

  59. 59.

    Anniecat45

    July 28, 2012 at 2:56 am

    Having the young athletes light the torch was awesome, and so was having some of the construction workers participate in the ceremony.

  60. 60.

    Nellcote

    July 28, 2012 at 3:06 am

    It needed Hobbits but otherwise and aside from Paul go away Mcartney it was fun and colorful. Oh yeah nbc commentary really really sucks and I’m reminded every couple of years why it so difficult to watch the Olympics.

  61. 61.

    Darkrose

    July 28, 2012 at 3:22 am

    @pseudonymous in nc: Seriously?

    And I thought I couldn’t hate NBC’s Olympic coverage more than I already did.

  62. 62.

    Tehanu

    July 28, 2012 at 4:02 am

    @eco2geek:

    It warmed my cold, cynical heart just a tiny bit that they actually gave a shout out to both kid’s lit and the National Health Service.

    Mine too, not to mention the Industrial Revolution shown as workers instead of Captains of Industry, and the suffragettes. And the choir of both deaf and hearing children. And Tim Berners-Lee, for chrissake, and Rowan Atkinson! As a whole it was sorta clunky but who cares? All the pieces were terrific.

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    July 28, 2012 at 4:05 am

    I know nobody will probably read this comment, but after watching the ceremony with all its quirky british sensibilities, I am sooooo freakin’ glad Chicago didn’t win 2016. Could you imagine the America, Fuck Yeah opening ceremony for that one?

  64. 64.

    AnotherBruce

    July 28, 2012 at 4:10 am

    If only Bob Costas could shut the fuck up and quit telling me what I’m seeing, for just one minute. I mean, why should some overpaid shitstick with a sickly studio tan have to filter the Olympics for me?

  65. 65.

    mai naem

    July 28, 2012 at 4:43 am

    I Tivo’d it and watched the whole damn thing. I thought it was pretty good. This is the first opening ceremony where I’ve watched the entire thing in a long long time. I didn’t think they covered New Wave/Punk/Ska enough. That was pretty damn big in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s with a ton of Brit artists…. No English Beat/Depeche Mode/Ultravox/Buzzcocks/OMD/Gary Numan/Adam Ant? I was surprised they didn’t stick a little Abba in the 70s piece. They had some non-English stuff in there so that shouldn’t have been a problem and Abba was huge in the UK in the 70s/80s.

  66. 66.

    Darkrose

    July 28, 2012 at 5:26 am

    @eco2geek: The NHS tribute was made of win. I really wish NBC had cut to a shot of Romney watching his fellow Anglo-Saxons celebrating socialized medicine.

  67. 67.

    Wag

    July 28, 2012 at 5:53 am

    @mai naem:

    I think they did cover that, but NBC cut away to an ad. I distinctly heard the opening chords of “Pretty Vacant” as they cut to an ad, and they were into later new wave (New Order) when NBC returned.

  68. 68.

    arguingwithsignposts

    July 28, 2012 at 6:47 am

    @Wag: @mai naem: There was a good representation of a variety of eras. Here’s the full playlist (Torygraph link)

  69. 69.

    master c

    July 28, 2012 at 9:35 am

    @mai naem: Also, I heard Enola Gay by OMD….as has been said-a jumbled mess, but I liked it.

  70. 70.

    SRW1

    July 28, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Anybody care to explain to a twitterphobe what the square root thingy in the retweet might mean?

  71. 71.

    MikeF

    July 28, 2012 at 9:49 am

    @Dexter’s new approach:

    I thought the 1st hour or so was pretty awful. Like a small art play theme on a huge stage. Or the film Synecdoche, New York. Or a Plink Floyd show gone wrong.

    I liked it. A bit hit-and-miss, but for me at least, quirky and surprising is more fun to watch than sterile spectacle.

  72. 72.

    master c

    July 28, 2012 at 10:17 am

    I would love to see the show in a non nbc format -link recs?

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