Smoke billows near windows as performers participate during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, Pool)
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Feeling forgotten about this morning.
The French took all my mind-expanding, mashup, and mellifluous ideas and put them in the Opening Ceremony act last night that opened the minds of billions of people, making them wonder how much sewage was pouring into the Seine, why a guy was by himself in some building high rise banging drums, and why some Sponge Bob cartoon characters or whatever were part of the show that was mostly about people and not fictitious little creatures called minions.
As the Iran and Iraq boats went by, NBC Anchor Mike Tirico said: “It’s not unexpected that Iran and Iraq athletes would be in separate boats.”
Good call.
There was Lady Gaga’s hip tattoo to think about and that got us to reflect on whether she and Bradley Cooper really did fall in love making the movie “A Star Is Born.”
We got some French literature motifs. Took me back to college when I took French literature and we had to read the books and I couldn’t understand any of it (though presumed because it was a French book it would be about love and I was right). Tried to translate but that took too long. Took a flight to see my sister-in-law who knew French.
Got a C in the class. Didn’t learn much.
How about the people dangling themselves from the construction site from way up high? Superb idea – real risk-taking on live TV. They dangled and we wondered if we were hallucinating like ChatGPT or if they really were dangling in the air. Hey were, a bunch of French acrobats or stunt people or whatever.
That was awesome.
And how about the guy running on top of roofs? The whole time I’m wondering who it was. My first thought was Kevin Hart but figured he’s American so couldn’t be him although the way the show went on anything seemed to be in play including non-French people doing wild things we’ve never seen in our lives.
The guy had a Phantom of the Opera vibe about him and maybe that was intentional and I’m just writing the obvious. There’s a great tune in that play but can’t remember the title now and it’s not the main theme here anyway.
Phantom Boy kept running around to different places in France, all masked up in his fencing mask which was kind of intriguing. Why do fencers wear masks where you can’t see their faces? Are they afraid to get stabbed in the face? But wait, they don’t use real swords in fencing so I don’t get it.
I knew things were out of hand when the dancers were prancing about on the bridge in those blue outfits looking all giddy and completely uninhibited. Around they went, skipping to and fro.
So French.
The lasting image will be that man on the bridge playing the piano with his piano getting rained on. The Opening Ceremony must go on, the undercurrent was, and so must the Olympic Games regardless of puddles on top of a black piano as we wonder how a man’s ability to play a piano is affected by the keys being soaked.
It was all so perfectly out there this show was unlike any other in the history of the world. I keep coming back to the sight of that guy banging his drums like a lunatic by himself up someplace high in a building. It looked like he was lost in the moment not even knowing he was part of the Opening Ceremonies, caught up in being wild and free from care about what anyone would think of him.
It was genius by someone to think of having the Opening Ceremonies centered around the polluted Seine River and across sites in Paris. The definition of outside-the-stadium thinking.
The only way to top this is for the LA Olympics in 2028 to spread its Opening Ceremonies beyond LA and California and bring in sites and sounds from across the United States including the Idaho Potato Museum, French Lick, Indiana where Larry Bird was born, West Des Moines, Iowa where Caitlin Clark was born, and Bethesda, Maryland where Katie Ledecky and Charles Hartley were born.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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