Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

The Olympics start in less than two days!

I haven't checked the schedule yet, but I definitely want to catch some basketball, swimming, diving, and track and field events, plus whatever else seems interesting.

The sports venues look pretty cool too. The "bird's nest" arena is nifty, but I really like the "water cube" swimming events building, especially when it's blue and glowing at night. Hopefully the smog will clear up and there'll be some blue skies for the games.

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I'll probably watch the opening ceremony. That's about the only thing I watch of the Olympics.

I love the Olympics-- the ideals behind the games appeal to me (though the reality often doesn't live up to them- but then what reality does live up to ideals? I've yet to discover one).

I guess I'm predisposed to Olympism by way of being interested in ancient Greek and Roman culture.

I always watch the opening and closing ceremonies and try to catch as much as I can of the gymnastics, swimming, diving, equestrian, track and field events and indoor volleyball games.

With On Demand and internet options, there's supposedly going to be more hours available than ever.

I'd love it if those hours actually let me watch competitors from all over the world, and not just US favorites...

Agreed!

WAY overpriced.

Salvador Dali's Llamas must be fed.

I always enjoy that. There are a few events I enjoy as well: Men's gymnastics, men's swimming, men's diving...

Women's high jump, women's pole vault, women's beach voll.... (sorry, had a cramp)eyball.

Hoping they intro women's trampoline for the next Olympics. Nice combo of art and athleticism.

I love watching the opening ceremonies and then following whatever I can thereafter. Swimming is a particular favorite, because the result is somewhat less subjective than things like gymnastics. But I do enjoy watching the more esoteric stuff too. Like Mystery Lad, I like the principle behind the Olympics, but there's also something about these competitions that seems purer than things like the NFL, NBA, or MLB. Intellectually I know it really isn't, but it feels that way, so I'm going with it.

Mens swimming and diving, soccer and basketball. Water polo and mens beach volleyball. Yeah, I like all the eye candy.

I'll watch it sporadically, focusing on the sports I've played. The opening ceremonies bore me, so that gives me a free Friday night.

I do like to watch the Olympics, but it loses my interest pretty fast.

Half hour in and yep, I'm thinking violence against these announcers that think so much of their voices and that stupid peacock symbol as if I don't know what network I'm watching.


Time to change channels.

Yes, the announcers were annoying. The opening ceromonies were nice though. Lots of color, lots of lights, world leaders, atheletes, dancers, the little boy eathquake hero, the olympic hero running through the air to light the torch, and fireworks. I'm a sucker for a grand show. They did it well.

Feeling a really negative vibe from this China Olympics. Don't want to watch even one minute of it, and feel like I'm holding my breath until its over and done with.

The announcers have been a pain since NBC got the Olympics, so I was smart enough to know the pain would stop during the parade of athletes.

The litte kid, the interview with Yao Ming and the torch lighting were great!

I thought the performances at the opening ceremony were mind-blowing. Seeing the 2,008 drummers start off the ceremony made me do a double-take -- it looked like something done with CGI, like what they've been doing in animated movies these days to take one figure and replicate it a thousandfold to make up a background crowd scene. The unfurling scroll on the stadium floor was also amazing.

My favorite performances were the blocks that rose and fell to create Chinese characters, the Great Wall, and other images, and the tai chi performers. I thought for sure that the blocks were controlled by computers and machinery, and was really surprised to see that each block was essentially just a person in a box. How did they manage to remember when, how much, and for how long to stand up or crouch down to pull off the entire sequence so seemlessly? The choreography of the tai chi performers was also fantastic -- the fact that so many people could move and jump around in unison, and yet maintain perfect concentric circles when viewed from overhead.

The parade of nations was boring, though -- and made worse by Bob Costas and his inappropriate comments, which almost always border on condescending or snide. I've found him distasteful since at least the Sydney Olympics. It was good for some trivia, though -- who knew that Paraguay is the only country in the UN that has a flag whose front is different from its back? (Google informs me that the state flag of Oregon is also distinct in this way... very interesting.)

It was an impressive opening.

I also liked the boxes representing movable type. At first I thought there werte people in them, then it did seem to flawless and thought computer controlled.

The little boy that walked in with the Chinese Athletes had an amazing story.

I was also impressed by how at the start the torch was not in place and during the show, it was put into place and hooked up to allow the flame to go. And with all the fireworks coming from the stadium itself, I was thinking "I hope nothing goes wrong.

And NBC needs to run the opening ceremony commercial-less or at least with fewer commercials.

Yeah, Zhang Yimou's opening show was spectacular. Every piece of it had a "wow" moment. The movable type blocks were mind blowing. I realized about halfway through that there were people moving the boxes when I saw their feet underneath. I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

Then came Costas and Lauer. What a couple of...I'd forgotten how crazy their banter made me during the Athens opening ceremonies. If anything, they were worse this time. How many times did they have to make the "joke" about being unable to pronounce someone's name? Do they seriously not realize how incredibly insulting that was?

I do enjoy the parade of nations though. It's interesting to hear who gets the loudest cheers. And nice to see the joy on the faces of the athletes as they come into the stadium.

I'd love it if they could devote one of the cable channels to the full, unedited feed without the lame commentary, but with subtitles.

I think at the point of the parade of Nations, they realize that no one is watching really.

I loved the opening it will take a lot for London to even come close and they probably shouldn't.

The lighting of the torch was incredible.

Actually, I like that part the best. I like to see the costumes of the different countries and spot the handsome guys.

I'm a bit bummed that I missed the 4x100 relay, where Jason Lezak basically posted the best split ever in an epic come-from-behind victory for the American team.

The time difference really throws a wrench into things... it's hard to catch the events you want to see, when often they're taking place during the early morning hours. It's also hard to avoid reading spoilers on the internet before the events are officially shown on TV in the US...

10 pm to 12:30 am seems to be the spot where you can catch most of the USA-tinged 'golden' moments shown live. Like that relay you mention (which was INCREDIBLE!).

Men's gymnastics was great, too. Those kids that had been all but written off after the Hamm twins' injuries really came threw. The son of a former Russian champion (Artemov?) had one heck of a pommel horse routine, Justin Spring was terrific on the high bar and Jonathan Horton should be in contention for an all-around medal.

Good stuff. A bronze medal, in this case, is as good as gold.

Some other sports are hard to find- I've yet to watch a men's volleyball game and that's a sport I really enjoy watching (I don't mean the beach version.)

My wife takes care of Peter Vanderkaay's Grandma where she works, so we have something to root for this time around.