If one--with this stellar array of materials, access to Channel 6, a well-napped 5-year-old and an evening suddenly freed because of icy roads and maybe more snow on the way--cannot have a freaking blast watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Winter Games, one is not trying very hard.
Previous reports:
-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924;
Well, OK, that was quite a show.
ReplyDeleteThe oh, snap! moment of the Sochi opening ceremonies was when Vladimir Putin countered President Obama's Billie Jean King with his Irina Rodnina--right after some dude in a suit came out and talked about the Olympics being about building bridges among different peoples and tolerance and not exploiting the athletes to push philosophical or political agendas. The Daily Mail called it "Shambles in Sochi," but--even without the leaders of the world's third and ninth most populous nations apparently trying to embarrass each other--I thought the opening ceremonies were pretty compelling stuff. I want to know more about the romanticized "Latta" (sp?) cars and Moscow hipsters that David Remnick, Matt Laurer and Meredith Vierra (sp?) were talking about on NBC. And I want to know more about Sochi's history as a resort town for Soviet bureaucrats; it sounds like Russian White Sulphur Springs. And while it wasn't what I would choreograph, I did really enjoy the fashion-show-runway debuts of the various countries' athletes against the loop of techno music.
Meanwhile, on the home front, we got all 89 of the participating nations' paper flags displayed, and the 5-year-old and I tinkered throughout with the layout of a wooden-block Olympic Village.
So, it was, indeed, a fun night. And the #Sochi2014 is off and running. In three mere hours from now, the U.S. women's hockey team comes on the "NBC Sports" channel. "Team USA faces Finland in each squad's Group A preliminary-round opener. University of Minnesota goalie Noora Raty had 58 saves in goal for Finland during a 3-1 upset of the Americans in November. (LIVE)."
United States 3-1 Finland
DeleteI can't remember another Olympics where the American press was so hostile to the host country, and I'm interested to see how this affects Americans' view of the games.
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