Saturday, February 13, 2010

WASN'T THAT SOMETHING? (And wasn't that sad?)

It was a difficult day here in Whistler yesterday after the news of the Georgian athlete swept through the Village -- and I felt equally bad for John Furlong, who has worked tirelessly for seven years, is exhausted, and then had to rise to the performance of his life, as the athletes do, to give that speech last night at the Opening.

And, though 'bittersweet', what an Opening it was, don't you think?! I gotta tell ya, some of it looked even better on TV than it did sitting in that stadium on Wednesday night. 'Now it can be told' that our seats were about 20' from where that snowboarder began his descent...

The highlight of the whole event for me was the 'breaking up' of the ice floes, and then those orcas, of course ... incredible what technology is capable of, huh? And hearing k.d.laing singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah live was pretty amazing, too!

Day off again today and Hailey and I will go to Canada House in the Village for their pancake breakfast, then we'll visit the Cultural Centre.

4 comments:

Julie said...

The opening ceremony was fabulous! Incredible effects and performances. Only in Canada is the Olympic flame carried to the final cauldron by a hockey player in the back of a pickup truck! Perfect...and SO Canadian! AWESOME!

Julie said...

...and my heart goes to the Georgian team who pulled on unknown reserves of strength and character to stay and to walk into the ceremonies.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the orcas were amazing. Enjoyed the ceremonies, found them nicely understated, not quite the flash of previous ceremonies, which was appropriate given the economies of the world.

So glad you are posting during this.

-kate

Monica said...

I loved it. Thought the piece by the Slam Poet was excellent, gave me goosebumps and so much pride. They really did a wonderful job and I felt they handled the tragic death of the athlete with great heart.

Those fiddlers were remarkable. Such energy on that stage. Loved the floor turning into the sea and the orcas and salmon. Northern lights.

Despite the final mechanical failure, I still thought that it went off really, really well and that we, Canadians, can be very proud.