blonde poker forum

Opinions thread.

I'm enjoying it.

smiled, laughed, shed a tear.

 Awesome. Really enjoying it. Starting to get the buzz now

Regards

M

I know you don't like gratuitous swearing and I can't stand people using hyperbole when it's just the emotion of the occasion. However,

This is unbe-motherflipping-believable

Much better than expected tbh

(http://www.reutersgallery.com/reutersgallery/ddf?type=v&id=726)

I laughed

Makes you very proud to be British doesn't it?

(http://www.reutersgallery.com/reutersgallery/ddf?type=v&id=725)

This part was genius.

Posted next door, but this is good! I loved the queens intro and the music montage. Btw, belgium have the fittest females on display thus far!

Lee Evans does a sketch about the countries you've never heard of.

"Made-up-istan!"

Missed the start, but put it on in the background to the pokerz. Danny Boyle got so many things right.  Way better than expected.

Comoros anyone?

Glad to see Danny Boyle was wise enough to take the advice of tikay & include a cameo by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

New York cosmos?

It's possible...

I'm still hoping that I got the person who lights the flame right. Wolf from Gladiators.

Absolutely loving it.

The Olympic ring manufacture was spectacular.

We do spectacular so well.

was brill.

Hi der Estonia, having spent a few days in Tallin, the woman are bang tidy.

I J K .....put a shift on pls

Totally British, totally brilliant


Geo

Announcer: "...AND THE REST!"

I'm not sure that I've watched an opening ceremony before, I guess  that I must have done so.

I tuned in at about 8:50pm.

I was blubbing by about 8:55pm as we took a trip down the Thames.

I'm a huuuuge sports fan but had previously wished that someone else was hosting this event. I'm already glad that we are hosting it.

I finally stopped blubbing by about 10:15pm when the countries started their entries.

I think much of the opening moments may be lost on the rest of the world but it struck a chord with me. We have much to be proud of.



I probably need to lay off the wine.

No, you're bang on, Mere IMO. It's the little touches a clever and imaginative director throws in.

Not surprised Boyle got Brunel/Branagh reading from the Tempest. I believe that's Boyle's favourite play.

Federated states of Micronesia, is that for real!

I was there, this is true, although I managed to sniff out the only ginger in Estonia.

The countries entrance bit needs to go. Long as fuck

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XcfknpWrqQ

About 2:45 he starts to discuss this bit.

Shut up, this is talent spotting on a global scale! /thread

Superb Ceremony.

This did make me chuckle tho...

The Olympics, a load of countries coming to Britain, putting their flags down, and trying to get a load of gold. It's like the opposite of history.

Loved the James Bond and Queen bit, the olympic ring thing was very clever too. I wonder If people from other countries will like it as they probably don't get half the stuff that we recognize as very British.

Cracking photo

(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/27/article-2180024-143F9427000005DC-911_634x441.jpg)

loved it. was worried it was going to be a bit twee at the start but they pulled it off.

I missed it was down the cinema. fml sounds amazing

What is that gold horn shaped thing carried by a youngster that accompanies each team?

they're petals

somehow going to light the flame with them i think

Ooooh!  ;popcorn;

V W X? (surely no country?)

Sir Chris Hoy with tears in his eyes.

Not the only one.

Alex T rocking it!

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s480x480/549757_10151151232658343_154012753_n.jpg)


Brilliant night though, some real moments to remember

Quality.

Just fucking stunning!

Macka sounds rough...

Where are the curfew rozzers tonight?

Remember the Commonwealth Games with Grandmaster Flash?

That was bloody long but bloody brilliant

Heard on Olympic stadium tannoy "Last tube of the night has just left. Night bus maybe available. Millwall fans please stay in your seats"

Excellent, feeling really patriotic right now, would probably actually slap any Olympic moaners if they crossed my path this sec  ;D

Awesome.

Take a bow Danny Boyle.

David Beckham bit was perfect.

Flame lighter's was a great idea.

Could've done without the Beatle at the end.

99% perfect, the 1% being Paul McCartney.

Loved the Chariots of Fire bit with Rowan Atkinson.

And the snippets of Kes and The Sex Pistols.

Thought the design of the cauldron was genius too.

I may have missed it but, in a massively music-centric show, was there any Rolling Stones?

The Muhammed Ali moment was very poignent, if a bit of a rip off from Atlanta.

Tragic to see how much he's deteriorated in health though.

Yeah, I thought that. Strange omission.


Very sad indeed, got to admit I shed a tear.

They were in the music montage bit, albeit briefly.

The Stones will never take part in a show where Paul McCartney gets top billing.

Dunno about anyone else, but I totally expected an actress in the James Bond scene to play the Queen, thought that scene was an excellent bit of Brit humour. ;D

Agree with pretty much everything being posted.
Lighting of the cauldron was excellent. Paul Mac-why oh why???
Well done to all involved.

Edit - low point - WTF was shami chakrabarti doing there.

Low point for me was seeing Muhammad Ali so frail. His carer said "Wave, Muhammad" about a dozen times but he couldn't move.

Can't wish that on anyone.

LOL that occurred to be too! She is one of the few people that regularly tilts me on TV.

Lose the boring half-hour at the start, the NHS bit and McCartney. The rest was great.

some highlights from Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/fullfocus/2012/07/27/olympic-best-at-london-2012/#a=1

wonderful, bonkers, emotional #london2012

Was out all  night, just watched a recording. Really loved it and cried a lot - music always does it.

Brilliant to see iconic British Images like The Pistols, Prodigy, Trainspotting, Arctic Monkeys - pretty daring really and superbly done.

As others have said, only down was ending with the most pompous of pompouses

After being just awful at the Jubilee, why o why did they give Mcartney the gig again. What was the cock up with the timing. Was he not doing it live. As cringeworthy as the Diana Ross miss. Not so sure about having Ali there in his current state relying so much on his sister but it did make me think back to his sporting achievements and he is without doubt the greatest.

Other than that everything else was fantastic

Great photos, good find, thank you.

Thin.

Loved it

Awesome

Proud to be British

Amazing stuff.  I was fearing the event would be kooky and really naff to be honest, it was far from it.  So many wow moments and interlaced just the right amount of comedy at the right times.  Bounced you between being happy, intense, thoughtful and damn proud throughout.  The cauldron was absolutely perfect.

Like many other people here Macca was the only thing I'd change, should have been Brixton boy Bowie to close IMO.

Brilliant
Thought the queen needs to learn to smile a bit more
What's the connection between the London olympics n muhamed Ali ? Was he born near bow bells ?
Paul McCartney looked ridiculous a 65?year old man with brown hair n a look at me attitude
The smiles and obvious pleasure of being there on the athletes faces was brilliant to watch ,gl to all of them

I thought the brookside lesbian kiss was a nice surprise inclusion

There were so many images that would have been seen as quite subversive a few years back - some of the CND references, many of the soundtrack choices, and quite a few other things that might come back to me sometime. I'll watch it again cause I have a feeling this will come to be recognised as something of a masterpiece by Danny Boyle

I thought HM actually looked a bit frail, the toils of the last few weeks maybe taken their toll

Geo

One of the neat things is the ceremony was quite left of centre: CND badge, Jarrow marchers, Trade Union reps, NHS etc

One idiot MP tweeting last night aside, he was clearly left to produce his own ceremony, artistically, with no political interference at all


That honesty reflected very well on the country I thought

So what did the rest of the world think?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9434319/London-2012-What-the-world-thought-of-the-opening-ceremony.html

Up until now, I have had no interest in the Olympics (only highlights I can really remember are USA beating USSR in Ice Hockey and the Jet Pack Man) and would have much preferred a Super Bowl or World Cup in London. However that was really superb last night, the 3.5 hours flew buy, only negatives was only getting 3 seconds off the Happy Mondays Step On, the Announcements being made in French first and Paul Mc at the end. Best women of the Night was the Blond Paraguayan (not sure if that was Ms.Franco?)

What an idiot. Okay, it wasn't the Nazi salute, but it looked similar enough to be misunderstood by lots of people, so just do something else.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-em8PfEFZoI

we took the piss but it's hands up time. massive congrats to APAT for getting poker in the Olympics

(http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z139/danralexander/tonyg.jpg)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/tony-g-olympic-opening-ceremony-1227481/

Jordan Duckitt, one of the youngsters who lit the Olympic cauldron, told BBC Radio 5 live: "Some of the other seven had their mums and dads there but I had no one as my parents had jetted off on holiday and I couldn't tell anyone about it. I just kept it to myself as I didn't want it leaked out anywhere.

"I'm still living off the adrenaline now. I've been nervous all week but as soon as Steve passed me the torch and we started jogging the nerves went.

"It went so quick, the noise from the crowd went straight through you. You could feel the emotion in the stadium and I couldn't sleep after because of the adrenaline, it was such a privilege."


Bless.

One of last night's highlights for me was an exerpt from the sex pistols version of "God Save The Queen" being used during the BBC's intro.

Who'd have thunk it?

Agree

Bowie "Heroes", he being from Brixton, would have been a nice finish


Reading about the rehearsals today

- 3am rehearsals of the cauldron lighting so no one else was around
- huge weather problems with shifting the rural scene
- 800 NHS volunteers who at the start of it couldn't dance, had to be choreographed


As soon as the thing was over, Arnold and the musical people back into the studio to do more on the Closing ceremony


Simply an epic performance, logistical achievement

Very proud of it for £27m cost, about 255 of the Beijing cost and with FAR more character

Just downloaded the opening ceremony.

Will report later.

I really liked some of the minor points - like the honour guard of construction workers and the dresses with the portraits of all the people who applied to be opening ceremony volunteers

I thought the honour guard looked like they had not done a days construction in their lives. Mostly office types and women imo

I loved everything about it. Could have been so stuffy, knighthood for Boyle imo.

What the world though (if not already posted):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9434319/London-2012-What-the-world-thought-of-the-opening-ceremony.html

 :)

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5abat5NEU

All is pleasant and peaceful again.

I was working while it was on, so missed it unfortunately.

I will try and watch it tomorrow afternoon before I start work after seeing all the comments here.

NBC cut Danny Boyle's tribute to victims of terrorism coz "wasn't tailored to a US audience". http://210.blork.ly/

Watched it all last night.  If I'd known it weas going to be that good, I would have cheerfully paid to be there.

Pretty sad to see an all time great in that way...

I believe he is of sound enough mind to turn down an appearance at something like this if he felt he was being exploited.

Superb opening ceremony, few negative points as pointed out on here (Shami being the main for me, can't stand her) but what a show!  Massive task to choreograph that amount of things going on.  Loved it.

That's what I meant to ask, how come there are three (?) athletes competing under the International Olympic banner rather than their own countries?  How does that work?  I'm sure one was from the Dutch Antilles, surely they are recognised?   Have they fallen out with their own place?

The Dutch Antilles no longer exists - but those athletes had already qualified for the Olympics

The other 2 I think are from countries which are too new to have a NOC (National Olympic Committee I think that stands for) yet

The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee, which had planned to continue functioning after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, had its membership withdrawn by the IOC Executive Committee at the IOC session of June 2011. However, Dutch Antillean athletes who qualify for the 2012 Olympics will be allowed to participate independently under the Olympic flag. As South Sudan has no recognized NOC, South Sudanese track and field athlete Guor Marial will also be participating independently in the Games.[159]

Geo

Interesting, cheers guys.

I'm quite surprised some of these places manage to get people to qualify for the olympics, they're so small, quite an achievement in itself.  In contrast you have Bangladesh who have never won a medal yet have 150m people.  Funny old game.

1 country had all of its team members ever only finish last or second to last

Its the taking part not the winning I guess. :)

wish i could find it. remember eric the eel, eddie edwards, some samoan doing the 100 m in 20 odd seconds.

Derek Redmonds dad helping him finish the race also lives long in the memory

'The important thing in life is not victory but combat; it is not to have vanquished but to have fought well.'
Baron de Courbetin

One of the most moving moments of television I've ever seen.

FYP

My highlight was "Abide With Me".

It was my fathers favourite, we played it at his funeral.

Beautifully sung. Really moving stuff. I was in bits.

I take it that they could tell their own parents. If so, how could they " jet off on holiday" and miss their child taking part in something like this? I would not miss it for anything

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsEG0Bh7VjQ


the lady was in the cast for the industrial revolution part.

Great footage

Saw a quote somewhere where he said he didn't dare tell anyone not even his parents so I guess they didn't know.

Just read today that the big stars in the opening ceremony were paid a £1 each  :)

The professional dancers and actors were the only ones who actually got paid the going rate for their performances

Oh dear, the Olympic police are about.

Young lass who was one of the 7 said on breakfast tv this morning that only her mother knew as she was with her when she got the call from Danny Boyle, she couldn't tell her dad.

Geo