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rain_gryphonJust watched America hand Japan a mighty drubbing in women's Water Polo.
*****
The Opening Ceremonies were kind of all over the place. The opening, wih the seed growing in the green spotlight, actually made me cry, but I think that was more pent-up tension, both from the delay, and from the subsequent uncertainty as to whether the Olympics would take place. I generally cry off and on during the beginning of the Five Hundred also.
The strange cone-like structure dominates the field. It took me a bit to realize that it's supposed to be Fuji, with a ball (rising sun?) on top. It'd be great if they had a pyrotechnic charge in the volcano, to make it shoot the ball up in the air, trailing smoke and flames! Not gonna hold my breath.
HM the Emperor looks fairly ordinary. It's interesting to ponder what's going through his mind as they sing "Kimigayo". It's hard to tell from the camerawork, but it looks as though all of the dignitaries on the dais are waiting for the Emperor to stand or sit first. Not by much, but definitely deferring.
Lot of singing and dancing, some good, some otherwise. The people with the red elastic cords were engrossing, as was the Kabuki dancer. The Death Dancer (not sure what else to call him) was amazing. The jazz pianist, OTOH, could have been tossed into the cauldron with no real loss, except that it would have made the stadium smell of burning jazz pianist.
The Death Dancer, though... OMG! He kept throwing himself into the air, and *whacking* down to the ground, dust puffing from his shroud. That had to hurt. It was long overdue to have a tribute to the murdered Israeli athletes. Being where it was, one couldn't help but think of the myriads burned to ash in the Tokyo Firestorm as well.
I recognized "Imagine" immediately. It took a bit longer to realize that they were singing in English. There's a singing quality to Japanese diction at the best of times. Even with thoroughly educated ESL speakers, it seems hard to overcome. One suspects that's very fundamental to Japanese.
They sang the Olympic Hymn in English too, FWIW.
I very much liked the paper and projected Doves. Releasing live Birds at celebrations has been bothering me increasingly. Technically, they *should* be okay and just fly away home, but releasing them amidst all the confusion and tumult is bound to result in casualties.
Sadaharu O has seen better days. It's good that they included him, though.
The Drone Swarm. That was deeply impressive. I shiver to think how that would have appeared to an audience in the stadium, watching that rise slowly, sparkling, over the wall of the arena. They held perfect alignment too. I wonder how much of that was the swarn being controlled from the ground by a big computer, and how much was each drone working individually with its onboard computer?
Having the cone be the base of the Flame is interesting. The ball opened into a sort of flame-shape, which wasn't really obvious to me from just seeing it.
Judging by the Parade of Athletes, Japanese alphabetic order bears little to no relationship to the names of the countries. Considering that Australia was announced a day prior, why didn't they march directly in front of the US?
Poland and Monaco are anti-countries.
*****
The Opening Ceremonies were kind of all over the place. The opening, wih the seed growing in the green spotlight, actually made me cry, but I think that was more pent-up tension, both from the delay, and from the subsequent uncertainty as to whether the Olympics would take place. I generally cry off and on during the beginning of the Five Hundred also.
The strange cone-like structure dominates the field. It took me a bit to realize that it's supposed to be Fuji, with a ball (rising sun?) on top. It'd be great if they had a pyrotechnic charge in the volcano, to make it shoot the ball up in the air, trailing smoke and flames! Not gonna hold my breath.
HM the Emperor looks fairly ordinary. It's interesting to ponder what's going through his mind as they sing "Kimigayo". It's hard to tell from the camerawork, but it looks as though all of the dignitaries on the dais are waiting for the Emperor to stand or sit first. Not by much, but definitely deferring.
Lot of singing and dancing, some good, some otherwise. The people with the red elastic cords were engrossing, as was the Kabuki dancer. The Death Dancer (not sure what else to call him) was amazing. The jazz pianist, OTOH, could have been tossed into the cauldron with no real loss, except that it would have made the stadium smell of burning jazz pianist.
The Death Dancer, though... OMG! He kept throwing himself into the air, and *whacking* down to the ground, dust puffing from his shroud. That had to hurt. It was long overdue to have a tribute to the murdered Israeli athletes. Being where it was, one couldn't help but think of the myriads burned to ash in the Tokyo Firestorm as well.
I recognized "Imagine" immediately. It took a bit longer to realize that they were singing in English. There's a singing quality to Japanese diction at the best of times. Even with thoroughly educated ESL speakers, it seems hard to overcome. One suspects that's very fundamental to Japanese.
They sang the Olympic Hymn in English too, FWIW.
I very much liked the paper and projected Doves. Releasing live Birds at celebrations has been bothering me increasingly. Technically, they *should* be okay and just fly away home, but releasing them amidst all the confusion and tumult is bound to result in casualties.
Sadaharu O has seen better days. It's good that they included him, though.
The Drone Swarm. That was deeply impressive. I shiver to think how that would have appeared to an audience in the stadium, watching that rise slowly, sparkling, over the wall of the arena. They held perfect alignment too. I wonder how much of that was the swarn being controlled from the ground by a big computer, and how much was each drone working individually with its onboard computer?
Having the cone be the base of the Flame is interesting. The ball opened into a sort of flame-shape, which wasn't really obvious to me from just seeing it.
Judging by the Parade of Athletes, Japanese alphabetic order bears little to no relationship to the names of the countries. Considering that Australia was announced a day prior, why didn't they march directly in front of the US?
Poland and Monaco are anti-countries.
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