Chinese Man Pierced 2008 Times for Upcoming Olympics
Well, the Beijing opening ceremony’s done and very spectacular it was too, though it never seemed to get exactly joyous or celebratory and never really engaged my emotions, unlike say Greece or Barcelona’s did. It was probably because of the stupefying scale and degree of regimentation of it all.
Some elements and effects did stand out, especially the massed drummers, and the lightsuits and the big scrolling painting, and the gymnast ‘running’ around the rim of the stadium to light the flame. Incredible. But the combined effect of it all was surprisingly underwhelming.
Those poor, poor girls in the sailor dresses and kinkyboots ringing the track have to get specisal mention; their stamina was indefatigable, their smiles never slipped, though their dancing looked a little scrappy towards the end. By then most of their makeup and bounciness had evaporated too – not surprising in that heat – but the smiles remained. They’re probably still there.
I’d been hoping for something pretty damned amazingly stupendous in the way of fireworks, given China is where they were invented, but despite the scale and overall impressiveness of the display it wasn’t a patch on Sydney’s gorgeous millenium pyrotechnics or even the closing ceremony display at Italia ’90 . Maybe it was just the terrible camera angles the BBC seems to have been allotted, or maybe I’m just jaded.
Best national dress: Mauretania’s robes in that heavenly shade of Tuareg blue and Brazil’s rainforest green and pale yellow casual jackets and shorts; practical, useful and wearable by all sorts of odd shapes and sizes. The Kazakh hats were pretty nice too as were Bhutan’s embroideries.
Worst: nearly Holland, in those hideous grey shapeless things (Belgium’s very similar outfits only escaped being worst by being in a slightly more tasteful shade of beige and by being better cut). But both were beaten easily by my joint winners – the Ukraine’s blue and canary yellow cartoon flight attendants and Spain’s ketchup and mustard explosion suits.
England’s outfit, while tasteful, I could barely manage a ‘meh’ for. Hope the team do better.
