Tag Archives: Opening Ceremony

Brock defends the London Olympics opening ceremony…

I am noticing that the Olympics London Ceremony last night, is getting a lot of negative criticism. The negative criticism is mostly coming from people from the USA. So far, I haven’t seen much people from the UK, slamming the Opening Ceremony. If you think about it, you’re not going to see much people from the U.K., slamming the Ceremony, probably none at all. Why? Because it’s their home country. They would love the Ceremony, of course.

What us Americans don’t understand about the Brits, we don’t understand the U.K.’s way of thinking and we don’t understand their way of entertaining people. Last night’s Ceremony, was celebrating pop culture of the United Kingdom. It was celebrating everything from music, to movies, to books, etc. During the children’s hospital segment, that was when Mike Oldfield was on the stage, playing parts of “Tubular Bells” (which is the theme for the film, “The Exorcist”), then J.K. Rowling came on to do some reading. There were also appearances of Captain Hook and Mary Poppins.

If you watch the Ceremony again, I’m sure you can find plenty of songs that were played on there, that you didn’t even catch. Like I said before, the music being played last night, they were playing all the music from U.K. movement: The Who, Led Zep, the Jam, the Clash, Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, Stones, Bowie, etc. It even went as far as playing newer British music like the Chemical Brothers and Adele. Anything in the entertainment business from the U.K., you would find in the Opening Ceremony.

Some Americans are wondering why Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) was used. Well, he is a big legend and an icon in the United Kingdom. He may not be very well known and not very liked in the U.S., but in the UK, Mr. Bean is a big megastar. The Brits, love Mr. Bean. I thought Mr. Bean, being a part of it was pretty appropriate.

I like the Brits way of entertaining people. They are unique and different than us. Watch the Ceremony again, if you have it on DVR. There’s plenty of mysterious hidden songs played throughout the Ceremony that are hard to catch. Mr. Boyle was certainly playing a “guess this song”, game with us for sure. Danny Boyle got the job ’cause he understands his country of the United Kingdom, better than anybody. The reason the Ceremony was theatrical and like a musical ’cause the United Kingdom has been widely known for theater. After the work, Danny Boyle did with “Slumdog Millionaire”, it was obvious he would be the only man to direct the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

I’m looking forward to see how Danny is going to close the Olympics. Will the Rolling Stones do their live reunion at the Closing Ceremony? Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s going to happen. Maybe Adele would perform the Closing too, who knows.

As far as the James Bond scene goes, that was alright, I guess, I just didn’t like how they used a stunt double for the Queen to jump out of the plane to arrive in Olympics stadium. They could have came up with a better idea than that, but I guess, it’s part of the UK’s humor. They have a different sense of humor than us. I think Danny Boyle is a genius, and he did a great job last night.

Kev