1. The Opening Ceremony. Wow. I was floored, I honestly could care less that the “feet” fireworks we saw on television were CGI… they were a cool concept and looked great. But beyond that, there were the awesome drummers, the wrap around screen in the Bird’s Nest, and that completely cool “community” painting that was created at each stage. Oh, and the light up dudes. Oh, and the human version of the Bird’s Nest. And the “movable type” dance. Very impressive. Not to mention all the fireworks. I tend to think of Olympic ceremonies as hokey and boring, but China’s were the first Opening Ceremony that really impressed me. Really impressed me. China should be proud.
2. Volleyball. What the hell is with Beach Volleyball?? Seriously, what the hell? When did this become such a major sport? And couldn’t we have missed a few of the Misty-May/Walsh matches? And why was she always “Misty-May” instead of “May-Treanor”? Because it sounds cuter? Lame. Speaking of which, why do the women wear skimpy two-piece bikinis, while the guys are in baggy shorts and shirts? Either let the ladies cover up or make the guys play shirtless… in Speedos, I say.
3. Swimming. Who knew it could be so exciting! I didn’t.
4. Gymanstics. Um, if the age limit for the sport is supposed to be 16, shouldn’t they actually be 16? I’m actually saddened that the Chinese would do this… the games were such a triumph overall, it’s a shame they tarnished them with the whole under-age gymnast debacle. Speaking of debacles, Nastia Luikin deserved to share a gold with He Kexin–why can’t their be ties in the Olympics? Both girls were fantastic, they had identical scores, why not reward them both in the spirit of the Olympics? I call B.S. Speaking of B.S. what the hell is with the new scoring system??? They couldn’t split the difficulty level and subjective and still make it so a perfect score is a 10? *sigh* It’s like the people that run the sport of gymnastics have no damn clue.
5. The venues. Another shining moment for China. The Bird’s Nest is unique and impressive venue. And the Water Cube was very cool as well. Combined with the killer Opening Ceremony, the Chinese managed to create one of the most memorable Olympics in my lifetime before any of the athletes even began to compete.
6. The Closing Ceremony. Not as impressive… not even close. The dudes in bike helmets, playing giant Gouda drums wasn’t very spectacular. The monowheel bikes were cool, and the “memory tower” flame thing was pretty cool, too. But that Bejing song? The typical pablum I tend to expect from the Olympic ceremonies. I half expected to see Ewoks come out singing “Small World” or “Hakuna Matata”. Enough already. The Closing Ceremony had a couple of cool moments, but it was not the cohesive amazathon that the opening ceremony was.
But the worst was the London transition. Oh, London. London, London, London. Terrible. Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page, making fools of themselves on a crappy looking double-decker bus stage?? No wonder Robert Plant doesn’t want to tour with Page. _I_ wouldn’t tour with Page. London, you have _so_ much work to do before 2012 to not make fools of yourselves. _Not_ a very good start. I was embarrassed for London. First that god awful logo, then this. Then that horrible Michael Phelps thing. Does London _want_ to suck? Sure seems like it.