Saturday, February 13, 2010

Vancouver Day 1: O Canada

Without a doubt, the Olympics bring out the best in video montage editors. Tom Brokaw's piece on the relationship between the US and Canada was absolutely breathtaking. Consecutive images of Wayne Gretzky and Peter Jennings nearly made me tear up. And, of course, the shots of the mountains were stunning.

Overall, I'd say the opening ceremony was a success. It definitely dragged at times but any show featuring the work of Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen is alright in my book. The Joni Mitchell segment, in particular, was extremely well done. One couldn't help but wonder for a moment if they were just going to make Gretzky hold the torch for two weeks. I was relieved for his sake to see the technical glitches clear up.

Rest in peace, Nodar Kumaritashvili. May you serve as an important reminder that some of these sports, as exciting as they are to watch, are critically dangerous. I'm scared to death of sports like luge and ski jumping but I can certainly understand how it would be thrilling for someone else. Winter hardly needs X Games. The conventional sports are pretty harrowing already.

No comments:

Post a Comment