I completely agree-- I hate when anyone puts their own "spin" on a national anthem. I love Canada's anthem and was heavily disappointed in that girls rendition, though guess I can sort of forgive her for only being 16.

Ya she was a good singer, but thats not the style for the anthem at all.

I should have recorded me and my dad watching the ceremonies, it was like an episode of Mystery Science Theatre... When the bear same out in the beginning and that wizard looking guy is banging his staff on the ground my dad yells out "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

It seems to me that many of you were looking for the bad in it. If you look for something, you will find it everywhere.

I found for the most part it was fine, but they did mess up with introducing the Govener General, the flags and the coldrun at the end. But it was alright for the most part. Atleast we didn't have voice overs or fake fireworks.

Why did they mess up by introducing her? Shes our official head of state. I'm actually quite happy they didn't introduce Steven harper, I hope it pissed him off.

The 4 first nations host chiefs had not arrived when the ceremony started. They were supposed to be introduced/welcomed as well.

So they all had "screwy face" wondering what was going on.

I agree about the anthem, it svcked. DO NOT MESS WITH ANTHEMS!!!!!!

Agreed! I hate it when the rendition turns it into some "heartfelt" pop-culture thing, where all the original beat and meter and rhythm is butchered mercilessly. :yuck: Anthems are suposed to be grand and inspiring, not some gaspy ululation ("and the hoooooohme... of THUH... BraaaaAaaaaaaAaaaaay....VUH" :facepalm: ).

I keep forgetting the Olympics are even on. The nightly news over the past few days didn't even mention that the Olympics were going to start this weekend. =/ I see more advertisemants for that stupid weight loss hoax on the Discovery Channels than any peep that there's a winter Olympics this year.

Lets face it no matter what they did it would have been pale in comparrison to what we saw in China, and if you look at it from that standpoint they did a pretty decent job. I like the fact they had Gretzky to light the cauldron, after all he is Canada's most famous athlete and probably an argument for him being Canada's most famous person period. Who else would we get to light it and be instantly recognized world wide as a famous Canadian athlete?

Sure they had some problems with the cauldren inside BC place but they did get it lit and the show went on, no big deal. The absolute worst part of that ceremony was the speeches at the end by the Olympic officials, I swear the first guy had a novel he wanted to read to us, and a boring one at that. And then the IOC pres...well lets just say they could have resinded his pass to the ceremonies and it would not have bothered me in the least.

Anyway....Let the games begin!

GO!!CANADA!!GO!!

Well they messed up on the protocol. The Queen(Govener General) is supposed to be introduced after the Canadian flag is risen.

So basically it was Amateur Hour.

Sorry Canada.

Atleast we didn`t have voice overs or fake fireworks.

A post has been deleted for cause. While l?se majest? is no longer a crime in most places, it is offensive everywhere. Keep your posts to the topic and do not post flamebait.

Anyway, I found the performance of the Olympic hymn tasteless in the extreme. It's a chorus, not a star vehicle for a diva with more hair than consonants.

Sung right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1u1xnGrw

Ah, I misunderstood the commentators remark then. I thought he was referring to that.

Yeah, we get your point.

It was good, but it had "failure" written on it ever since that budget came out.

You go from country with 1 billion people to one with just 30 million. People carried the expectations as well, which was pretty stupid.

Winter olympics tend to get less coverage/attendence than their summer equivalents as well, since every nation on the planet has at least some form of summer, but less than half have a cold (and snowy) winter...

Didn't watch the ceremonies myself - all I'm really interested in is the ice hockey and ski jumping.

Sven Kramer won the long-track speedskating! :celebration:


Svencouver! :hehe:

i'm happy canada finally got a gold in mens moguls i was rooting for them(after the 2 americans biffed it hardcoe)

I'm happy Canada won a gold too, mainly because every [censored] commentator kept talking about the "home-Gold" drought. Would it be over, could this be the Canadian who ends the drought... yadda yadda yadda.

I know <_< All I was hearing on the news was "Who is going to be the first Canadian to win gold on home turf?" Like it was a fact that we were going to get one no matter what. Nevertheless, I am very glad we finally got one while hosting.

I loved the fiddlers and tap dancers during the opening ceremony, as well as the neat light effects on the ground/those hanging curtains.

Also, like has been stated, I absolutely HATE when people do anthems "in their own style", you are supposed to do it right, like everyone has heard. Not drag it out over five minutes, our anthem is boring enough as it is. Same with the Olympic anthem, it's not supposed to be opera <_<

Other than that, it was pretty good.

Isn't that cute? A moderator being censored?

Anyways, I'm wondering how people from big, populous nations regard ice skating? Is it more important and/or enjoyable to watch than things like Cross Country Skiing, Ski Shooting (Biathlon?) or Combined (CCS + Ski Jumping. Sorry, no idea what it's called in English)? These sports are very important in Norway, but I have a feeling they are not very important outside our litt duck pond.

Pretty much anything cross country isn't popular where I am from. When I cross country skied back in elementary and the beginning of high school it was considered the uncool, lame and boring thing to do. Everyone downhill skied, or snowboarded and you would (supposedly) have to be crazy not to. I quit cross country in high school and tried downhill and snowboarding, but never got into it. Hundreds of dollars for gear, hundreds more for a pass, to go up and wait for an hour in line for the chair lift then do 15 minutes of downhill was not my idea of fun As for biathlon, not many people I know even know what it is. It always interested me, but I never tried it.

Around here its all about hockey (duh) downhill, moguls, and aerials. Guess it comes with having a ski hill 30 minutes from town. We do also have Sovereign Lake Nordic Center (where Olympic CCS have trained) just out of town as well, so there is some cross country, but not as much with the younger crowd.

It's on the TV a good amount. It's considered very girly, but I know it takes some strong men and woman to perform. I enjoy watching it.

Ice skating (figure skating, not speed skating) gets more attention than any other Winter Olympics sport in the States. Cross-country is more winter outdoorsmanship than a racing sport to us, and those related sports (Biathon, Nordic Combined) are as good as unknown. Even though the biathletes are probably the toughest sons of [censored]es in the Games.

Thanks for the answer I wanted to hear. I'll rub this in the faces of my countrymen.

++

Anthems have endured for years, most pop music is "music that lasts a lunchtime". Play music as it was intended, not as "modern" tastes have decided it should be played. If someone wants to hear modern crap, there's tons of it available.