Good-bye, Stodgy Beijing. London Rocks… and Yet…
Being a Jewish boy, I have always had ambivalent feelings about England (and the UK) even though I have spent lots of time there and adore the culture. They don’t like us much. (And the acquiescence Friday to a demand by the Lebanese judo team for a physical separation from the Israeli judo team at the practice gym was evidence that this continues. Yes, it was an Olympic committee decision, but it was in London, for crissakes. C’mon.)
But I have to say that the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics was a smash that only the Brits could have pulled off. It made the opening of the Beijing Olympics look stodgy and, well, communistic in all its repetitive tedium.
The London event had class. It had wit and it had genuine pathos, something never seen before, as far as I know, at an Olympic opening ceremony. The English are the world’s masters of self-mocking irony and, since Shakespeare, the masters of theatre as well. The mise en scene of the Industrial Revolution was nothing short of brilliant, the arrival of the Queen via parachute from a James Bond helicopter a coup de theatre so fabulous it was reason by itself to hope there will always be an England. (And more royal corgis!)
Bravo, director Danny Boyle, already in the top ranks of directors from Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting. You have outdone yourself here.
Bravo, Kenneth Branagh, you’re not Olivier but you’re close enough.
Bravo, Mr. Bean, the hugely funny Rowan Atkinson, who made us laugh with a parody of Chariots of Fire, completely apropos for the Olympics, succeeding with the most personal of comedy, the smallest of looks, in a gigantic venue.
Bravo, Tim Berners-Lee for what you gave us (www.pjmedia.com, among a zillion other examples) and Al Gore did not.
And most of all, of course, bravo SIR Paul McCartney because you are SIR Paul McCartney and changed our lives more than any politician. You can close any ceremony as long as you live — and I hope that’s long.
And hurray for all the athletes in your colorful costumes, the well-designed and the stinkers. My favorite: Cameroon.
Leni changed her name to MSNBC. Except there’ll be no one to reflect back on how stupid we were to allow the institutionalization of racists on American TV. There’s no one to save America. If we can’t do it, no one can. And we can’t. Inviting the entirety of the Third World in as guests has put paid to that idea as the disappearing Brits would say. In 100 years the UK will be a sultanate. Read Bernal Diaz backwards for our own fate.
Good Morning!Life is good,{i have windows facing east on the third floor}. In England they still believe that assimilation is possible.Here in Massachusetts the Puritans thought that too. With no will here in this country to have borders i see at least two winners,the Catholics and the elderly.Mexico and central America are both catholic and young[Maybe obama should leave the Catholics alone]! Social security may be funded yet!(
Jew hatred is institutionalized in Britain.
The spirit is not there. It is shocking, in fact, to see Kobe Bryant – a pro player – on the ‘team.’ Not just him, but other pro-players as well. But yes, especially him, who was once embroiled in scandal. The end of innocence.
Then there’s the politicization by athletes, the Muslim won’t stand side by side with the Israeli – which is a complete and utter violation of the spirit of the games, which is that the athletes put aside the animosity of nations and tribes, and all come together as humans in this one common enterprise.
If they can’t set aside their hate, then get out. And leave the games to the real sportsmen.
“Dream Teams. I always found that term ironic because now that we have Dream Teams, we seldom ever get to dream.”
The closing lines of the 2004 movie Miracle, the story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team.
I agree.
While I understand the motive for including pro athletes in the Olympics, I feel very little pride or excitement when a group of multi-millionaires pound the (insert your country of choice) in a 30 point basketball victory. Were these college athletes or other amateurs, then indeed, the thrill would be significant.
Given the press release by the NBA Players Assoc. Forensics Division during the Zimmerman dust up, I will be cheering for them to lose every game. They do not represent my America or my values.
You didn’t see the NHL Players Assoc. inserting weird racism into the John Lee Malvo assassinations and I expect the same from the NBA.
As usual, blame the communists. If they hadn’t insisted their state run sport systems were “amateur” while sending professional teams, in everything but name, to world events, countries like the USA and Canada would not have needed to insist that their professional athletes should be allowed to compete, as well.
Thomas_L, You are spot on. People are quick to judge our crass and larger than life American athletes, despising them explicitly because they are so good.
But where were the complaints about the East German women’s swim team? It was obvious for decades that they were cheating. Yet there was no scandal and no revocation of medals when their cheating became known. Everyone just accepted China’s flaunting of the age requirements in the Beijing Olympics.
You know, if you are more tolerant of lying, cheating governments that control their athletes than you are of free and irritating individuals, what does that say about you?
Which societies have really corrupted the Olympics?
For the last 12 years I’ve been calling those collections of overpaid egotists the “Bling Team” and loudly cheering against them (along with millions of other Americans). The 2004 bunch was the worst — they were lucky to get the bronze medal.
Other than the 007/Queen “paradrop” and Beckham piloting the motorboat holding the torch bearer, I waited until the “parade of nations” to really watch the ceremony. Reading the earlier posts here makes me glad I did.
My 15 year old son who plays hockey made the same observations about the “Dream Teams.” I remember as a boy watching the Olympics and USA teams with nervous anticipation and great pride. My three athletic teenage sons have shown passing interest in the games (mostly becaus of NBC’s awful format) and couldn’t finish watching the opening ceremony which we all thought was boring. The boy meets girl dance and music segment was particularly awful.
Thank you! It was up to the Olympics to teach a lesson on good sportsmanship to the Lebanese team. They failed miserably.
Perhaps the games should have been opened by the Lebanese and the Israelis taking center stage,to SHOW THE ENTIRE WORLD why they are so necessary?!
Innocence died with 11 athletes in 1972.
David Bowie, watching Riefenstahl, had the realisation that Hitler was the first rock star. If this is the era coming to an end, maybe it’s a positive. Sure they rock, but they are also the world’s great drunks; an esthetic that leads to great highs and falls. Churchill got more out of liquor than it got out of him, but boozy Brit genius has been facing the universal law that prescribes diminishing returns, of late. The dream of a new Jerusalem in a green and pleasant land doesn’t quite work.
It looks like the gold medal in archery will go to the S Korean athlete
–who is legally blind
Oustanding
It looks like the gold medal in archery will go to the S Korean athlete
–who is legally blind
Outstanding
you can say that again.
funny, funny
Korea lost to the US in the semis (major upset). They beat Mexico today for the bronze. US winds up with silver after losing to Italy.
A tribute to the national health system in the opening of the olympics?
What??
Why not add a half-hour song and dance number about dry cleaners?
To think of all the great British scientists, artists, explorers, Admirals, writers, Kings and philosophers that were completely ignored. Not a wisp of a mention of WWII.
Instead they inserted about an hour of fat kids in strange costumes, jumping around to loud recorded pop music. Just like a Madonna concert.
Everybody knew the Beijing opening would blow London’s opening away. But Boyle seems to either have simply surrendered, or his mind has a very fleeting relationship with reality.
“A tribute to the national health system in the opening of the olympics?”
As much as I enjoyed the opening ceremony, I thought that part was really odd. Kinda like putting lipstick on a pig.
I have to disagree…we thought the opening ceremony was a joke..like a panel of 3 year old monkeys on speed put it together…we finally stopped watching.
I do believe the whole thing about socialism, socialized medicine etc..is a “one world order” thing and has been in the works for many years…and we are not in it alone.
Obama and Cameron,p.m., seem to get along well..and that is not good for england or us…
Paul Krugman bribed Danny Noyle to put in that fantasy junk about NHS
What? No tribute to the Welfare state!
How about the tomato harvest or green energy, or the blush on the female workers cheeks in the fields and glorious infrastructure we all owe a debt to?
I’m surprised the didn’t have chorus line of dancing sheikhs with swords while their first cousins danced around them.
I thought filling the entire stadium with hospital beds, nurses and sick, frightened children, as a tribute to the culmination of the grand evolution of the great English culture to its crowning glory, socialized medicine, was a bizarre but sadly appropriate metaphor for Great Britain’s cultural suicide.
Were you watching the same event as me?
Looked like it was put on by a Communist country. What do you do with a billion people watching? Glorify laborers for 20 minutes with pounding drums, have a women’s rights movement march, promote socialized medicine NHS, finish with a baby with it’s head split open,….And what do you think about several hundred young people launching fists singing …….”They will not force us….They will stop degrading us….They will not control us….We will be victorious”….. Clearly a revolutionary message presented as part of a teen love story. What has England become that they would showcase this politically progressive, socialist revolutionary rubbish????
It was like a British Howard Zinn historical narrative of the UK (see A People’s History of the United States).
The Cold War was a Pyrrhic Victory, the Neo-Marxists rule Britania.
Howard Zinn, Danny Boyle, what’s the difference in world view?
Overall, this opening ceremony was about as interesting as a parade in Albania.
Absolutely agree with this. They had some nice special effects but the message sucked. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.
Sorry, Roger. I have to agree with the comments above.
This was half off-off Broadway musical, half indoctrination skit put on by volunteers from The Guardian.
“Leftists on Parade” without the precision of forced labor Communism ala Beijing.
In fact, it was thinly veiled Fabianism, much like the small c communism that passes for liberalism in the post-modern West. It hides its true intent behind a show, a camouflage, a mask, a costume…all their world is a stage and all the small c communists are merely players.
Boring, plodding, tedious, overwrought, preachy, uninspiring, schoolmarmish, …trotting out women’s rights (in the face of thousands of women athletes competing on the world’s biggest stage), nationalized health care (for the children), the belching, stinking, sulphuric smoke of industry and capitalism, …Bill Ayers as the Bard.
The Brits have been the Fabian enemy of Jews around the world. Their efforts to undermine and slander them in blood libels and near blood libels has reached depths of depravity surpassed only by raging lunatics attached to a virulent disease first in Germany, then in the Soviet Union and always in the derangement of radical Islam. The BBC is the UN of media outlets when it comes to slandering and debasing Jews.
And yet, I agree with you that the British sense of humor is witty, often brilliant, understated (all things truly British are understated, their ignorant, arrogant and morally bankrupt media notwithstanding). But this act upon a world stage was not their finest moment. Never have so many done so little with so much at their disposal.
And yes, I also agree…the world stands upon the precipice. It is yanking hard left. And, the Yankees…the last bastion of sanity in the West, may have seen the Motherland’s last stand. We escaped tyranny from here…but it’s back. With a vengeance.
Super dittos in all respects.
Roger, have you regressed to your second communist adolescence?
Nicely put, cfbleachers. I was going to post something myself, but I couldn’t have written it better than that. Kudos.
Well spoke!
Tritto. The thing was a Marxist’s wet dream; everything was an exercise in PC self-parody.
Roger, pull yourself together—come to the light!
“Uncle,” as we used to say.
I have appended an update above.
– as Brunel was one part that wasn’t silly. Even Lord Kenneth Clark acknowledged Brunel’s contributions to Civilization — and did this decades before modern London cleaned off the soot from all those dark satanic mills.
Agreed.
Certainly the technical wizardry was admirable, as well. It was a spectacle. It was the subversive and somewhat hidden Marxist Revolutionary messaging that was the real stink bomb though….on top of the Zinn-like historical narrative.
I used to love the Olympics since my dad told me about a dark haired girl with figure skates. I was only 10 but the concept of the world athletes coming together in a way that was impossible for officials from those countries enthralled me. Of course my dad told me that our athletes were amateurs but that in Russia the athletes were paid by the county to practice. The parade of athletes was so exciting, see the different uniforms and all the countries especially the ones that only sent 1 or 2 participants.
This yr my daughter & I hurried our after dinner walk to not miss minute. Well after 60 of them the tv went off. The industrial revolution was awful, honoring the NIH was deplorable & the James bond/Queen stunt could have been ok if it didn’t go from day to night and you never saw them land.
Since NBC acquired the Olympics not ABC. It’s unwatchable. And with Matt & Meredith chatting I wanted to put them on mute & while Ryan Seacrest might be ok for Idol he’s no Jim McKay.
Oh yeah, I forgot to highlight the sneering at capitalism (which is what brought England its wealth and power)…..and the Evil Rich White Men that were oppressing the workers in the show was an obvious swipe at all the disfavored groups that need to be and are being disempowered (according to New Leftists)….of course they had one token minority to stand with them, as a sop to Multicultural multi-racial multi-ethnic diversity promotion.
The whole thing was nauseating.
Not to mention wanky Leftwing sops to Doreen Lawrence (prosecution of the alleged killer of her son saw the end of Double Jeopardy Prohibition in the UK) and Shami Chakrabati (Maoist opposition to UK and US (and European and Israeli) terror responses).
This!! A thousand times this!!
nationalized health care (for the children)
They sure as hell weren’t going to show what the NHS does “for” old people, were they?
Yes, a lot of punches are being pulled here. To define so many of Britain’s problems in terms of anti-semitism misses many, many other things. Put me alongside #8 and others above.
Re that first hour or so of toe-curling ‘history lesson’: Aside from the Bond/Queen/corgi/helicopter sequence (brilliant), the rest devolved, fast, into an excruciating and preachy fable, a chaotic and embarrassing mess of politically correct themes in colllision. Isn’t this the way the world should be? Don’t you all want to be like this? Like me? You bigot, you hater.
–Takeaway: Britain in now a nation of pink-panty bedwetters dedicated to retreat, defeat, under-achievement and narcissm. Only a thin patina of bluster remains, derived from faded memories of what used to be (cue Dam Busters music).
–The approved narrative: Everything good that ever was or ever will be, was conceived and executed by black people. All history is actually about black people, always — even if it is a bit hidden now and then, which is your fault anyway. And you will pay and pay. So there.
Fortunately, the opening ceremony itself eased up a bit as the propaganda thinned. At random:
–One saving grace (though a bit long): Mr. Bean.
–One pleasant surprise amid the dross: D. Beckham in a speedboat, a great live (let’s hope?) sequence brilliantly filmed.
–One great highlight: lighting of plinth/fireworks/Paul McCartney
–One mystifying pathology: the weird fetish for NHS hospital beds.
–One big relief: no sign of Elton John fondling men.
–Depth of the abyss: The murder of Abide With Me, turned into a dirge by Emeli Sandé (hard to pronounce, fat, black, female; a perfect four bagger), accompanied by an irrelevant writhing man (black) in front of the mike. Not exactly the version preferred by the pipes and drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, let’s say.
Oh, yeah, don’t forget. If you say the word black, you’re racist.
I talked my husband into watching the Opening Ceremonies with me by promising him that it would be a blast to pour a few drinks and go all Statler and Waldorf on the proceedings. We were not disappointed.
Best Tweet I saw all night was during the transition from the bizarre NHS bit to the pop music/social networking orgy: “Ah, and I see that we’re now celebrating that greatest of British traditions – taking psychedelic drugs.”
Well, I confess. The whole presentation seemed a bumbling, incoherent miasma. James Bond, the industrial revolution, a giant baby head, a scattered focus of disjointed zombie like collections of humanity wandering about.
But
Given Mr. Simon’s praise I have to come to the conclusion that I am a cultural klutz unable to grasp the Shakespearian wonder of it all. I obviously lack the artistic discernment to grasp the infusion of British irony and mastery of huge crowd scenes – and – the fake queen. What a coup de maître!
See Mr. Simon’s mea culpa in his update.
I didn’t bother to watch. As far as I can tell, Europe decided on suicide 98 years ago next month, and nothing I’ve seen since indicates they’ve changed their minds. For a long time I was fascinated by their descent into narcissistic irrelevance, then depressed by it. Now I simply can’t be bothered to care.
Philosophically and politically, the Olympics mean exactly nothing. If you are interested in competitive sports, by all means enjoy it, but all the rest is meaningless fluff.
The dancing nurses and giant baby hit a new height of bizarreness, even for “Cool Brittania”.
The message the whole wretched mess sent was, “We, the socialist elite’, are here to stay, National Health Care and all. And we will decide what constitutes reality from now on, thank you very much”.
Reality in Britain is looking increasingly like the violent, macabre fantasies in Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius novels, especially The Condition of Muzak. All we need is somebody impersonating C. Brunner standing atop Nelson’s Column screaming “It’s a tasty world!”
But I doubt even Moorcock ever thought that anyone in Britain would be a big enough fool to think his fantasies would make a good blueprint for reality.
clear ether
eon
Where is Moorcock’s Eternal Champion when we need him most?
Very interesting thought. “The Condition of Muzak” indeed.
Let me say, Roger, as a Briton, that I was as disgusted as you were by the repulsive demand of the Lebanese to be curtained off from the Israelis (who will wipe the floor with them, with any luck). I’d heard about the demand. I hadn’t heard that some idiot had agreed to it. That really makes me sick.
There is always a first time – I disagree, Mr. Simon
It was an embarresment. The moment I saw those costumed “Scotts” and “Welsh” obviously from Kenia (?),I turned off my tv.
Must have been great fun for the victims of the NHS to see this monster being praised.(My sister just survived the dreadful “service”)
Well of corse China gave us the Leni Rievenstahl opening, but Britain gave us a Marcuse/Leary style self hating “inclusive” mishmash.
But anyway, I will not watch a minute of the IOC/OIC/BBC Olympics.I really hope those 17000 Soldiers are able to keep Brits and visitors save from the religion of peace. I pray for the members of the Israeli olymic team, who have to give their best in a disgusting hostile environment.
From happy NHS:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2179832/Nurse-failed-spot-pensioner-suffered-stroke-EIGHT-HOURS.html
I am sorry for my bumpy English and pray and hope America will escape Obamacare and Obama! Europe is lost, you are the last best hope.
Good description of the show….and I second your sentiments.
Is this some kind of joke? It was a leftist fable. And idiocy. As for that “witty” Bond thing, my company makes better videos than that for our sales meetings. Fail.
Wait a second. Isn’t Roger saying that the whole show was a brilliant satire on UK-style socialism? Many of you are saying this was a rather failed Riefenstahl propaganda piece. Can both factions be right? No. I didn’t see it so I’m still in the dark. Help.
I don’t know, maybe we were watching two different programs. I thought the opening ceremony was literally INSANE! It made very little sense, historically it was all over the place, and nothing quite “screams” Olympic sports like a tribute to the British National Health Service! At times it even seemed insluting to the viewer. I could only watch until Luxembourg marched into the stadium when I finally decided to call it quits. At least the Chinese Olympics made a point, albeit a very, very, creepy one of world domination. The London Olympics was a combination of forgettable history (yes, when I think Olympic swimming I always think about the Industrial Revolution) and the absurd (Mary Poppins as a symbol of British greatness? That’s just pathetic.).
It was like watching a faded movie queen with alzheimer’s. The patient was remember bits and pieces of her faded past in no particular order, with absolutely no thought about what the future may bring. It was sad, pathetic, and a gross waste of time. For the closing ceremonies, what are they going to show, perhaps a long, drawn-out Shakespearean death scene that will symbolize Britain’s future? Only if it includes someone dying in a National Health Service bed. THAT would be the most realistic thing at these ceremonies.
Technically—getting everything to work—the smokestacks, the fiery rings—and the visual impact of it made it quite an unforgettable spectacle but, then, so was the 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally. But the content, and the overwrought, Reifenstahlian production? To me, “A People’s History of Britain,” as produced by Reifenstahl.
From barbarism two thousand years ago, and back to barbarism again.
Other commenters above are right, a huge chunk of time to celebrate the NHS—that is killing off and enfeebling, and keeping crippled and in pain the people of the UK–but nothing about WWII? The tacky bit with the Queen parachuting into the stadium with James Bond. Hundreds of children in bed, cowering before a nightmarish, 100 foot Valdemort and monkeys with glowing eyes, with the NHS as Mary Poppins protecting them? The huge baby in the bed? What the hell was that all about? Hundreds of “dancers” maniacally convulsing and gyrating to a succession of awful rock ‘n roll “tunes”, a rapper, and the take home message of bacchanalia, rebellion, and anarchy. The once pretty uniform white, Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of England, who were responsible for the UK’s great achievements, now lost and overwhelmed in a politically correct sea of ”immigrants of color,” and the featured young couple both black?
Was this a real celebration of the true achievements Britain, or some acid-induced, nightmarish Leftist Walpurgisnacht, celebrating the Left’s destruction of this once proud land, and the coming Night?
They weren’t “both black”; even better, from the suicidal multi-culti perspective, one was mixed-race. The message was, this is the new Britain; revel in it until it sinks into the Third-World sea. People in a free country should be free to marry as they choose, of course, but this tableau was carefully chosen to carry a message: Britain as we knew it, the country that the queen first began to reign over 60 years ago, is over. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, fellow Americans.
No doubt the finest spectacle since the Romans flooded the Colosseum for a naval battle. One sure sign of a decadence is that entertainment becomes more elaborate as national morality erodes. Gibbon reminds us that when the Goths approached the gates of Rome, the able-bodied youth of the city refused to man the walls. The populace was sold into slavery, but the aristocracy and the clergy survived to rule over the wreckage of a plundered city. Watching civilization commit suicide brings me no joy no matter how artfully it’s done.
“Watching civilization commit suicide brings me no joy no matter how artfully it’s done.”
They say a picture trumps a thousand words. This sentence trumps most books.
Indeed, well said.
This was art as interpreted by bored socialist bureaucrats; poorly designed and executed. But hey, it’s the INTENT that matters, right?
Well it can be said that siding with the likes of chickenhawks from the GOP are the same as the aristocrats of Rome who make deals with barbarians while selling out their fellow citizens or have them be the one to risk their lives while the elite are off at their parties and horse dressing contests. Rome,Spain, France Britain, The Soviets, The U.S. It doesn’t matter what you’ll call it communist, monarchist, capitalist history has shown that is always the so called elites that in wanting keep to their eccentricities they’ll always look to selling their nation’s interest instead of sacrifice.
Were (are) we watching the end of the world as we have known it?
Even with the limited copy space of your essay, you’re too modest. Of course the answer to your question is Yes, it is the end, or at least the public symbol of the end. The termination of freedom as the preferred way of life in Western Civilization, which first became dogma in 1848.
I remember back in 1972, watching the mass-murder siege, thinking maybe these 11 Jews being slaughtered would serve a purpose, be a wake up call that notified us with utmost clarity of what faced us, and that civilization would move us to deal with the threat. Since then, Moslems have been given land, power, money, and ship loads of positive publicity. We learned the lesson of Munich, and from its reinforcements with the Jihad terror killings in Beirut, poor Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro, Khobar, Kahane, Air France 8969, the first WTC, Bali, Lockerbie, the second WTC, Little Rock, Mombai… I’ll stop, this could take hours, it’s the weekend, and I don’t wanna bum anybody out. Not any Infidels, at least.
Could it be that there’s a pattern here? And, if yes, what’s the root source of it?
By not remembering the 11 Jews last night, what shards of civilization left in the West signaled its official surrender.
Maybe a good time to watch Spielberg’s Munich again. Seem to recall there’s a chance to see Daniel Craig in his pre-Bond days.
So many comments above that say much better than I about my reaction to the opening ceremony. The only thing I will add is that it looked like decadence personified. Here one has a nation that is slowly dying and they put on this horrible show that was so politically correct that it was chaotic. It reminded me of the tremendously costly and luxurious buildings that the Kingdom of Granada built when they should have been spending money on cannons and gunpowder to defend themselves with; decadence personified and it cost them their existence.
How low the UK has fallen.
It used to be that they celebrated and applauded and wanted to emulate the heroic likes of Boudicca and Caractacus, Richard the Lion-heart, Nelson at Trafalgar, the soldiers at Rorke’s Drift, or Winston Churchill, now the focus is on the court jester, the insignificant, ratlike, wunnabe, Mr. Bean.
The Freedom parties in Europe and Britain support Israel one hundred percent. The EDL (English Defence League) hold both British and Israeli flags in their street protests. The EDL is deeply hated by UK leaders and Muslims. The EDL is viciously persecuted by British authorities/police, especially the EDL leader, who is forced to wear a bullet proof vest and is constantly physically attacked by Muslims.
One attack was caught on video, but the police REFUSED to prosecute their top FAVORITES – Muslims. The top two EDL leaders are now leaders in the British Freedom Party. British Freedom are strong supporters of Israel. http://britishfreedom.org/
http://britishfreedom.org
Christian Olympians Get Islamic Halal Meat
The London 2012 Olympics are leaving a bad taste in athletes’ mouths since they found out that the British assured food standard is 100% Halal.
This is the deceit and hypocrisy of UK supermarket chains and slaughterhouses which, whilst boasting the ‘Britishness’ of their products, surreptitiously purvey Halal meat to the general public and the Olympic teams. Halal is the Islamic method of religious slaughter whereby a live animal has its throat slit whilst being blessed in the name of Allah.
…the American Olympic team, which includes many devout Christians and followers of other faiths, are unknowingly eating meat sacrificed with the same words used by the 9/11 mass murderers as they hurtled into the World Trade Centre.
http://britishfreedom.org/christian-olympic-athletes-fed-islamic-halal-meat/
It is despicable. Muslims are immigrants to Britain! Not indigenous Brits! Yet, UK leaders, supermarkets, butchers, restaurants, cafes and the food production and catering industry eagerly bow down to the very cruel and merciless god of Islam.
If Muslims want animals slaughtered with terrible cruelty, there are 56 Muslim countries Muslims can live in. Britain is NOT a Muslim country. It is unforgivable that a non-Muslim country would willingly allow animals to suffer great agony. It is a shocking abandonment of our far superior, and extremely merciful Western civilization, of treating all of God’s creation, people, and animals, with love and kindness.
Shame on the British and New Zealand governments for bowing low to Islam’s god and allowing such horrible cruelty.
Dhimmitude. I will never, ever understand it.
The Olympics have been a farce since I can remember. Which is a long time…The last one I watched showed the East Germans openly cheating in the luge race, caught on camera, but they were not disqualified. Soviet athletes were paid by the govt, but that was against the rules, honored in the West…The opening ceremonies yesterday are some entertainment guy’s idea of brilliance…What would Hollywood have done different? Obamacare instead of the NHS? Does the typical movie or TV show represent Americans? Most people I know stopped watching that stuff when it became propaganda for the depraved.
As for our future, stop and think about history. In Elizabethan England, it wasn’t safe to go out at night; depravity was common…Yet in the 19th Century the Victorian Age saw a re-birth of the traditional values that made freedom and democracy possible……Most societies drift left and right, from moralless to remembering their roots in civilization’s basis. The 20′s vs the ’30′s in the US are an example of the change back to values from wild parties….All of which has nothing to do with games that have failed to promote world peace, which was supposedly the reason they were instituted over 100 years ago.
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night………
Mr. Auden’s poem sensed the coming horrors in 1939. I agree with Roger that there is something ominous in the air. Let’s enjoy the Olympics for what they are, games and distractions. Maybe there’s a Jesse Owens to be unveiled.
A women’s rights movement march at the Olympics? UK Women’s rights movements wont speak out for defenseless, non-Muslim female children who are specifically targeted and massively abused by gangs of Muslim male predators.
In allowing over 85 Islamic sharia law courts to operate in Britain, UK leaders reveal their intense hate for women. Under sharia law women are treated as inferior and UK leaders are DELIGHTED to take away women’s rights through Islamic sharia. Vile women-haters. UK leaders are NOT happy that British Freedom-EDL believe strongly in British law that gives full rights to women.
UK leaders are not happy that British Freedom-EDL human rights activists, have protested the Muslim gangs of inhuman monsters who specifically target non-Muslim female, British children, who the Muslims rape, sexually enslave and force into prostitution. At least one child pleaded with the police for help and was ignored. The wicked abuse continued.
The UK government, regardless of who is in power, are despicably opposed to women’s rights, and REFUSE to protect non-Muslim innocents.
British Schoolgirl’s Testimony Muslims Threaten Children With Violence Rape Outside School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdpH5IuumKM
Immoral and EVIL British leaders and police REFUSE to protect Britain’s indigenous, non-Muslim children. I am unable to put into words my ANGER and distress that British leaders and police REFUSE to protect Britain’s beautiful, innocent, defenseless children who are being offered up as a sacrifice to Islam by British leaders and police.
Instead of immediately and permanently ending ALL Muslim immigration, deporting all Muslim criminals, terrorists, non-citizens and illegals, British leaders continue to massively import huge numbers of Muslims into Britain It is evident that merciless UK leaders want the number of non-Muslim child victims of Muslim gang predators to greatly INCREASE. God help the children!
About the only lines in the column I would agree with are:
“These days, there are more important things than sport. I’m not even sure we can afford the distraction.”
Perplexed. When I saw the opening ceremony in China I was blown away. This ceremony in London reminded me of a modern and very silly Buzby Berkely send up. China’s ceremony showed me a powerful and culturally rich empire poised for world domination. This one showed me a West poised for extinction. All moral judgement suspended: Juxtaposing the two … sends shivers up and down my spine.
Gee am I the only one who saw the Industrial Revolution sequence as trying to make it dark and sinister and the destruction of lovely pastoral England? I had my daughter stop the recording so I could tell her the story of the lovely hamlets and pastoral villages currently being despoiled by noisy wind turbines being okayed by the Anglican parishes.
Maybe it’s because I have had to do so much research into the the UK’s new economic foundation and its push for an economy based on sustainability that “moves beyond GNP to focus on relationships” but that’s what I was reminded of in the first two scene’s juxtaposition. And it was Friday night and I was not looking for any substantive insights. It was just so glaring.
And then the NHS scene? Glorifying that nightmare. I was GC of a healthcare company that operated in the UK so people had options apart from the NHS. Read any English mystery novel set in last 20 years and they talk about the private pay patients. The private pay doctors and hospitals.
NHS created terrible outcomes for so many and now a highly stratified healthcare system and they glorified it in an Olympic ceremony?
Oh the Beloved State.
You make a great point although I think it was more amblivalent feelings being portrayed. You had Kenneth Branagh portray Ismard Kingdom Brunel, the greatest engineer of the Victorian era, they had the scene of the Olympic rings being forged with special effects molten iron, and they had the puppet of the transatlantic cruise ship. Even the Victorians had a love-hate relationship with the Industrial Revolution. The great Victorian writers from Dickens to Gaskell wrote works about this “brave new world”.
Wasn’t a movie made about something like this? I think it was called Hunger Games. Bread. Circus.
The only thing I really liked was Paul McCartney; and not just because he is who he is. I think the song Hey Jude was good – perfect for the occasion. can do better. What these athletes are there to do. I did think it should have been before the lighting of the flame. (There were other spots that were good).
i had no idea why the NHS was included. I have heard it is bad so could only think it was propaganda.
I was disappointed there wasn’t a moment of silence to remember the murdered athletes. Right after the athletes had all come in would have been a good time.
We are at the brink, for sure; more than any time since 1936. It may not seem as dangerous militarilly, until you make the adjustment for nuclear weapons.
And in that year, we had a leader who, for all his faults, loved his country, and believed us capable of more than raping the rest of the world.
Americans still felt united as well.
Net net, we were probably better off then than now, although ousting the marxists will at least give us a fighting chance.
If he isn’t thown out of office, it doesn’t seem likely that the death spiral can be reversed. It won’t be sudden, for a few years at least, but there is something about death spirals…they can switch from gradual to sudden in a flash. obama would like nothing more. He would have the revenge he wants on all of his enemies; the bitter clingers, white people, capitalists, successful people, the USA, Christianity, and western civilization. Frank Marshall Davis would at last be content.
Here is what Leftwingers are saying about it…
“I loved it. Made me feel all warm and cuddly about being British in exactly inverse proportion to how I usually cringe about it during royal weddings and Jubilee boat shows on the Thames.
And it shows how much the social and cultural consensus has moved in a progressive direction in recent years. It’s common to assert that we are living in the Thatcherite consensus. Rubbish. Danny Boyle could never have got away with that without 13 years of NewLab.”
“I saw it as a socio-economic history lesson about what capitalism did to the poor and how they fought back, improved their working conditions through unions, their power through enfranchisement and replaced charity with universality.”
You arent the only one who saw it as Leftwing cultural-political propaganda, bubs.
The masses can always be distracted by sport and spectacle. Roger, I am disappointed.
I watched the begining of it, then hit pause to take care of some chores, intending to finish the rest later. I hit pause just as they were finishing forging the ring on the floor (almost said “the one ring” ha ha) and flying in the other four. Up until that point, I was actually rather impressed, so I’m a bit discouraged to find out the rest devolved so badly.
Up unitl then, it seemed like a pagent celebrating what made Britain great. The hard-working countryside, the industrial revolution (I saw that sequence as celebrating it, but I imagine it was open to interpretation). The women’s suffrage march was humorous, but even that is part of the good in English heritage – political dissent being tolerated. I thought maybe it would remind folks over there of their true heritage.
It still might. If I have time, I’ll watch the rest just to see it, but in a certain sense, if it is a looney as suggested by the comments here, maybe voters in England will see the contrast. Maybe they’ll realize those guys in top hats and frock coats wouldn’t put of with this sharia nonsense.
But then I’m an optimistist, in a pessimistic sort of way. We are at the end of an era. Change is a’ comin’. I’m sad for all that will be lost, for much that is good is doomed and will be swept away. But I am hopefull that even more evil will be taken with it. It is up to us to make what we will of the turmoil. At one time, the English were masters of harnessing the wind, using it to take them where they wished to go regardless of where the wind blew from. If that England still exists, perhaps they can sail the winds of change to a better future.
And if that England is goin, well, American sailors were the only ones who were ever better than their English cousins.
Wow Roger, really? Everyone is surely entitled to their opinion, but I’m surprised you liked it, even a little.
If I was an alien and knew nothing of socialism, marxism, environmentalism, mulit-culturalism, self-loathing, etc., I would tell you that this opener was a utterly schizophrenic disaster. And those were the good parts.
I “liked” the epic Hey Jude ending, but mbe it’s just me.
I thought it started off promisingly. But quickly devolved into “how we’ve managed to take the ‘great’ out of Britain. I’m pretty sure my parents in UK clicked off the TV about the time Frankie & June said Relax. And I’m sorry, but Macca was like the guest at the party who wouldn’t leave when everyone else wanted to go to bed.
Having had a chance to work with and for David Wolper when he produced the 1984 opening ceremonies, I would say that the technical aspects were brilliant. The LED by each chair to give computer generated light stunts, amazing.
But for all that has been said, I was left with China begging for more, and with this production, it was like the athletes couldn’t wait to leave or the fans for that matter.
Contrast with 1984, when the athletes and the music continued for more than an hour after the cameras shut down, and eventually the lights had to be dimmed to get the fans out of the Coliseum and the athletes back to the dorms.
Reach out and touch, emotional, tear jerker.
Hey jude, brilliant, long lasting, done well, but not the same.
So London congratulate yourself on a job well done, but will stick with technical brilliance, but an aloof performance.
We tuned in late by choice, joining the festivities just as Turkmenistan entered the stadium. I’m glad we didn’t waste our time with any of the earlier pageantry, although I did sneak a peak at the Mr. Bean skit and the Bond-Queen piece.
The Olympic flag bearers, in a nutshell, tell you all go need to know about what is wrong with world right now and with the hodgepodge of nonsense perpetuated on the world stage last night. Apart from Haile Gebrselassie (one of the greatest runners of all tme) and perhaps Muhammed Ali, the rest of the squad, as far as I can tell, was composed of radical left-wing activists, plus they tossed in Ban Ki-Moon so that the message was hammered home. The two worst choices were Marian Silva, a radical Green Party environmentalist activist from Brazil and Shami Chakrabati, a rising star on the political left in the UK who runs a group called Liberty, This organization, according to Wikipedia, has devoted a lot of its time and resources to fighting some of the security and intelligence measures put in place after the 9/11 and 7/7 Islamist attacks. And for good measure, they tossed in Daniel Barenboim, a poster boy for the self-loathing progressive Israeli Jews.
Some of these people probably deserve some of the recognition they have achieved, but what do they have to do with the Olympics? Could they not find one entrepreneur or job-creator to carry the flag? Or perhaps give the honors to past British Olympians? The happiest moment for me was when this group passed the flag on to representatives of the British military.
Muhammed Ali was a radical left-activist too, remember? Vocal draft dodger. And loud, angry denouncer of America. At first. His inclusion seemed out of place to me. Then I remembered that I guess they see him as an anti-white hero. So, perfect then.
Yeppers.
He also embraced Islam and changed his name, turning his back on his Christian name, Cassius Clay, and his culture. The ultimate in Leftwing radical chic, these days. See Lauren Booth.
maybe there is a reason for why he changed his name and his religion. Maybe it has to do with the fact that despite winning gold in the Olympics when he went back home he was sell being called nigger. Maybe it has to do with the fact that as a black man who just happens to have such talent was treated as something less and that he saw the treatment of the people around whose only fault was they had dark skin. M ay be his conversion had to do with the historical REALITY that the reason for his family being christian was because it was a by product of slavery. BUt no that’s to much of an excuse right? Should he have gone to Vietnam Well then in that case do you go after Cheney and Romney and Rove while you’re at it? Also he was 4F but then amazing enough his status was upgraded you’re gonna tell me there might not have political move behind the same it was done to Elvis which we all know was done to shut him up. And that doesn’t take anything away from the King I want to add.
A list of things I like about England:
1.Mr bean.
Mr Bean? Thirty minutes of mugging and pantomime that, while occasionally amusing, is still mugging and pantomime.
Blackadder — now THERE is comedy.
What the true inventors of the Internet said about Al Gore:
http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~fessler/misc/funny/gore,net.txt
Must-read!
Here’s The Opening Ceremony Tribute To Terrorism Victims NBC Doesn’t Want You To See: by Timothy Burke
http://deadspin.com/5929778/heres-the-opening-ceremony-tribute-to-terrorism-victims-nbc-doesnt-want-you-to-see
In the words of onetime piano player Liberace “Excess, is, Wonderful!”
In the words of OldTimer “It’s only a game”
In the words of a future historian “How could an organization conceived in brotherhood and sportsmanship ideals, designed to promote pure friendly athletic competition and international peaceful interaction, debase itself so utterly completely and unabashedly in merely one hundred years?”
First, unlike everyone else it seems I actually watch the whole show from beginning to end. The live UK TV feed, not the NBC edited highlights. The whole thing was 5 hours long. And unlike people in the UK I was watching it in the early afternoon on the West Coast, not late into the night. It ended at 1am local time. So I was very awake the whole time.
It was a superlative show, brilliantly executed. The show had to cater to a very large number of differing audiences and just because some people around here did not get some some bits, well, that’s their problem. If you did not get it, then it was because that particular bit was not for you. Or as it seems in some cases. Because it did not fit your political narrative or political prejudices.
I’m a Brit and a Londoner and my political opinions on pretty much every subject is the diametric opposite of Danny Boyles. In British terms I’m pretty much a pure Thatcherite and have been since the late 70′s. I have absolute contempt for the lazy platitudes of the chattering classes epitomized by the Guardian and sections of the BBC. But I also recognize and respect the right of people of Boyles background and opinions to express the opinions he holds in the very sophisticated and nuanced way he did during the show. He is a working class kid from the East end. He is not someone who came from a privileged comfortable middle class background spouting trite cliches. I think what he achieved was inclusive, in the true sense of the word. It really did represent everyone. The people of the East End, the people of London, the people of the UK. for the rest of you it was just suppose to be a visual and musical spectacular.
The UK has a long and honored tradition of legitimate dissent by those who have a differing view of how the world should be ordered and use art to express that view. In the last generation I can think of several British playwrights, writers and directors who no matter how much I may disagree with them politically I can still respect their opinions and view as expressed through their art. Danny Boyle is very much in the tradition. Several generation ago the US also had such people but in the last generation I cannot think of not one single American writer, director or playwright who has risen above hackneyed commonplaces or self-serving drivel. Michael Moore being the poster child for his generation.
So the NHS number which seems to have annoyed so many people – I think that could be used as a case study for how to present successfully a very strong political point of view in a mass market entertainment situation. Firstly it was part of a celebration of children literature (we wrote most of the classics). Then it used the staff from Great Osmond St. Children’s Hospital. This might not have resonance with the Obamacare haters here but the hospital is absolutely revered in the UK. Next you have a visually spectacular piece that is part Roland Dahl, part Busby Berkeley, finaled with squadrons of flying Mary Poppins. A work of genius on so many levels.
One of the most impressive parts of the show was to indicate just how dominate Britain is in popular culture. The whole music sound track was British (with occasional Commonwealth asides)from start to end. And it was basically a greatest hits track of the last 50 years.
Yes, we gave you great music, we created the modern world, and oh yes, we also created the world wide web. Add to the United States, Canada, Australia…
Not bad for a dingy little island. Mustn’t grumble, I suppose..
jmc, I have to give you credit for defending the home island but from the vantage point of lots of us over here, the USA, it sure looks like Great Britain is a goner and will be dominated by Muslims and lick spittle leftists in another generation. If Scotland and Wales want to save themselves they better devolve and quickly but who knows there. Looks like Ulster is the only one with any fighting spirit. Just my opinion and I hope I am wrong.
By the exceptionally high cliche quotient of your post I’d guess you have not the slightest idea of what you are talking about. Even though I’m from over there I’ve spent a big chunk of the last quarter century over here. Mostly of in California (for my sins) where I’ve seen a once great state run into the ground by looney lefties. When it comes to who has the most insanely delusional lefties who are most likely to destroy the country I think your bunch of complete nut cases easily beat our nut cases by a wide margin. In a moment of crisis we elected an Old Etonian safe pair of hands whereas you elect an affirmative action sociopath who is so certain of the utterly supine public culture that he published a “memoir” that is an almost complete fabrication, a tissue of lies. We’ll see which country has sloughed off most successfully the 68′er and other parasites in 10 years time.
As for Ulster. Speaking as someone who is very much a Unionist its obviously you know little or nothing about it either. That faction who you think so highly of, the Loyalists, are little more than unreconstructed Klan. If you had ever actually met any Loyalists in person you would know what low life most of them really are.
I think your last statement is why so many of us Anglophiles are a bit disappointed with the opening ceremonies. We wanted a show that put the GREAT in Great Britain. As you pointed out we are the children of a history going back to the Magna Carta and before. We love the cultural heritage from the legends of King Arthur, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Bronte, Dickens, Waugh, to Doctor Who. We are a pit peeved Mr. Boyle was trying to make a political statement when perhaps we Americans feel an Olympic opening is not the appropiate place. I thought the opening was wonderful. As you mentioned it showed the birth of the modern world we live in and I think it is quite appropiate to show the triumphs but also the dark side. Birth is not a painless process. I am glad as a Brit you did enjoy the show and perhaps us Anglophiles were wearing our rose colored glasses.
Bingo. This was an opportunity to present the noble history of Great Britain, emphasizing its role as the place that gave birth to the philosophy of human rights, the emancipation of women and slaves, the very Enlightenment values that twisted little leftists today twist to reduce Western civilization to its pathologies and shortcomings.
Maybe Brits revere hospitals, but this was a show to the world, and filling a stadium dedicated to an international sporting contest with hospital beds full of sick, frightened children was utterly bizarre. My sad thought was that it was the perfect expression of Great Britain’s current self image.
The question is not whether some artist has the right to express his opinion, but whether this show was the best, or even most accurate, way to present the history of a culture that has produced mankind’s greatest humanitarian achievements to date, whatever it’s shortcomings. This was a wasted opportunity and a sad shambles of degenerate leftist fantasy.
Indeed.
And for the record, Danny Boyles’ Howard Zinnlike worldview isnt the dissenting political viewpoint anymore….it is the current zeitgeist and held by the majority of the Establishment.
Believe it or not, jmc, some of us colonial rubes, are highly cognizant of British cultural references, including nuances like references to the Great Osmond St. Children’s Hospital.
And the show didnt have to cater to a large number of differnt groups, which is part of the problem….the multicularal mish-mash of balkanized cultures and peoples arent British anymore, they are micro-colonies of foreigners.
The Politicization of the Show is downright nauseating.
I agree that England and the British have given the world much, but instead of actually focussing on the great literary tradition of Dickens and Shakespeare or the great Global Naval Superiority and or Empire, The Rule of Law, Equality Before the Law, we got served up Fabian revolutionary subversive messaging using selective historical narrative. They didnt even bother to celebrate the Irish, Welsh, and Scots heritage for Christ’s sake. And speaking of Christ, where was the Anglican Church and the Christian Religion, St. George and Richard the Lionhardt. Heh? You know the real tradition of the UK, not this multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multicultural mish mash rubbish. Multi-racial dating and Lesbo sexual activity.
Good Lord!
And I did see the whole thing from beginning to end. What a crime against humanity and the British people, that was.
And par for the course the Queen was bored and knitting whilst this show was going on, for love of God! Her reign will be remembered as the one who did nothing whilst her country was colonized by foreigners and destroyed via balkanization and Leftwingism….she knitted whilst the country was destroyed.
Absolutely perfect visuals on that score.
I weep for England and the English. Go EDL! Go UKIP! Go British Freedom Party!
EscapeVelocity, I appreciate all you’ve said. I’m a Canadian Anglophile from the top of my head to the tips of my toes and I love the Queen. However, I altogether agree with your “I weep for England and the English. Go EDL! Go UKIP! Go British Freedom Party!” (I love Nigel Farrage and Daniel Hannon!)
Another fine English hymn, “Turn Back, O Man”, comes to mind:
Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.
Old now is earth, and none may count her days.
Yet thou, her child, whose head is crowned with flame,
Still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim,
“Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.”
Earth might be fair, and all men glad and wise.
Age after age their tragic empires rise,
Built while they dream, and in that dreaming weep:
Would man but wake from out his haunted sleep,
Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise. . . .
Yeah, those 2 are great, and so is Paul Weston of The BFP.
And as someone who comes very much from the Arthur Bryant school of British history I completely disagree with you. We have an awful lot to be immensely proud of but given the time, the place and the venue (as well as the back story) it would have been completely wrong to make a big deal about any of those subjects. No matter how worthy. Now that would have been a utter shambles. And also very, very un British.
If the choice was between what Boyle did and some utterly anodyne Andrew Lloyd Webberish British Tourist Board “Great Britons from History” cringe making tableau vivant I’ll take Boyle any day. As would the vast majority of Britons.
And if this means that some doctrinaire political partisans of the right get their knickers in a twist about the subject (like the twittering Tory backwoodsman MP) then frankly, my dear, I dont give a damn. As dont the vast majority of Britons the day after a wonderful tour de force of a show. Its only an entertainment show, for Gods sake. Have some sense of proportion… Bloody yanks – they take everything soooo seriously…
Oh, I certainly agree that Empire may be inappropriate for the Olympics with many former colonies in attendence. But then again so is subversive Radical Leftwing historical narrative ala Howard Zinn, and subversive Fabian messaging.
The Brits have much to work with though…and could have gone the literary and scientific route with great success. Or banged the Enlightenment Classical Liberalism. Add a dash of Ireland, Scots, Welsh in there and maybe a little Horatio Hornblower.
But alas…what we got was beyond PC mumbo jumbo….into subversion.
And for the record, Im with Michael, Im not a Brit basher, Im an Anglophile.
And PS….your cultural cringe is part of the problem, and assists the Leftwing subversives in their quest to destroy you and yours. Just so you know.
Cultural cringe? Moi?…
I knew Aussies back in the 80′s. Now that was cultural cringe.
Now if we are talking cultural cringe what happened to all those Ramona / Old Spanish Days / Oregon Trail Festivals that used to be part and parcel of the summer season out here in the far west 50 and 75 years ago. Dont see much celebration now of the wonderful heritage of this land. The US seemed to have stopped celebrating its wonderful imperial and colonial heritage decades ago. (there is no difference between empire over the seas and empire over the land, really).
Despite what so many Americans seem to think Brits have got over that whole post Imperial business long ago. Basically around the time GB became the UK. And unlike the US we are basically at ease with the subject. Even on the BBC you will find lots of history documentaries which if maybe not very Baden Powell about the subject are still, soto voice, of the opinion that on the whole it was a jolly good thing while it lasted. If nothing else it sure as hell improved the cuisine of the home country.
Yeah, the Aussies have it particularly bad. And all of the Anglo World does really, including the US.
It is part of the problem that we all face. Reasserting our cultural confidence and right to exist without apologizing is what it is going to take to turn things around….in the face of being called bigots and fascists, religious oppressors and racists.
But European Christendom (aka Western Civilization) is worth defending, promoting, and perpetuating as a going concern.
Handel’s Messiah, the Hallelujeh Chorus sung by 1000s of volunteer Londoner’s, that would have been a real showcase and a beautiful spectacle that no one attending would soon forget….and quintessentially British….but that would probably would have made you cringe.
EscapeVelocity: “But European Christendom (aka Western Civilization) is worth defending, promoting, and perpetuating as a going concern.” HEAR! HEAR!
Not bad for a dingly little island…thats why were are in mourning over Britain. It is a shadow of what is used to be. Once a world power, ruling over 25% of the worlds population, now a doddering victim of Alzheimers or mad cow disease on a national scale. Once the Olympics are over, perhaps the stadium will be used for stoning infidels and playing polo with dead goats
You wrote regarding why people didn’t like the opening ceremony, “Because it did not fit your political narrative or political prejudices.”
I think that’s the point, though. People don’t want the Olympics to be politicized.
I suppose it’s just me but the Olympics as an institution (wherever they are held) always seem to have a “whiff of facism” to them. It’s like being back in high school and being forced to go to some sort of gargantuan pep assembly even though you know half of the football players are real jerks. I always find the lockstep, smiley-face “Spirit of the Olympics” incredibly depressing and something that masks the fact that the IOC has historically been one of the most corrupt international bureaucracies on the planet.(And that’s saying something.)
Naturally I want the U.S. to do well but nearly a month of hyperventilating press commentary and “The Heartwarming Olympic Story of the Day” always leaves me more exhausted than the competitors themselves.
My wife, who resists politicization despite my best efforts (actually her resistance probably keeps us both sane), agreed with me that the whole thing seemed more than a bit strange — aside from the socio-political messages, what the hell had most of it to do with the Olympics? It felt like “Mad, Mad, Mad World” gone Limey. Her mother, who is now in her late ’80s, traveled quite a bit with her late husband to see the games in various countries; I wondered aloud what she must have thought of that weird Monty Python-without-the-Pythons (except via commercials) mishmash before the athletes marched in. It was THAT weird. Speaking of the Pythons, I can well imagine that they would have staged a skit featuring upper-class twits attempting various silly Olympic events (maybe beach volleyball in three-piece suits?). But maybe they also would have aimed a blow at the middle- and lower-class twits being fed Hollywood’s and the Beeb’s poison pablum?
Before anybody else makes a comment ‘like it was difficult to follow’ will you watch the whole thing the whole thing that might help
The BBC has no commercial ads,so flows.No wonder people would be confused if you kept having it disjointed.
The Amercian coverage also missed out the tribute and minutes silence for those who couldn’t be there ,including soldiers that have killed in warfare.
Those who have been victims of terrorism, this includes 7/7.
When London won to host the Olympics everybody was really made up and it was a ‘feel good’day.
The following day was 7/7, so the Olympics and 7/7 are connected to us.
We went from a high to a low.
The hymn ‘abide with me’ was sung during the tribute ,it is an important hymn
to us.
So you missed out the important and moving bit because American’s would rather watch Ryan Seacrest talking to Michael Phelps.
So cheers for that
I watched the BBC coverage and apart from the inane comments from the radio DJ guy it was superb. I was glued to my screen for the whole time because at any given moment there was so much going on in various parts of the stadium. I could not be bothered to turn on the TV later on just to see just how much NBC butchered the show. It was tape delayed 5 hours on the West Coast and based on past experience with US networks it would be small segments of the show from London just squeezed between the ads.
In the full show literally every second of the fours hours was packed with several things going on concurrently.
What I like about the “it was PC gone mad” brigade is that probably missed the fly over by the Red Arrows at the start, the raising of both flags by member of the armed forces, the very pointed memorial to the military dead and those murdered by terrorists. Not exactly a save the lesbian whales guardianista love in.
I just rechecked the BBC broadcast length. From Red Arrows to last firework clocked in at just over 4 hours 25 mins. The NBC broadcast was scheduled for 4hours 30 mins. I dont know if they overran. But with a prime time ad rate at the standard 8 mins per half hour that would have meant that NBC would have cut at least one hour and 15 mins from the show. Knowing NBC they probably stuffed a lot more ads in than that considering how much money they paid for the broadcast rights. Probably cut a lot of the stuff that was not simple eye candy. No wonder it made no sense.
Well, I watched it in Spain on RTVE backed by a satellite feed and saw it live, intact and complete with first-rate Spanish commentators. I was wondering when you’d back off from that claim of ‘over five hours’ public broadcast. Aside from the odd bathroom break, I believe I saw it all. Incoherent mess with good bits, not the flat-hatted Triumph of the Will they evidently hoped for, even though the socialist propaganda was often polished to high-totalitarian grade.
And now you’re waving a red herring. Ah, yes, we Americans are just too dumb to know better. If you’ll permit technical language, you’re full of it.
I watched the show lived in the BBC iPlayer (though a UK proxy) but started watching at 9pm BST, 1pm PST. The BBC TV broadcast ended after 1.30am BST. The Red Arrows did there fly at 8:11 PM BST and Macca stood up from his piano seat 4 hours and 25 mins later. I later grabbed a torrent of the whole BBC broadcast, 5 hours long, which had started at 8pm BST. What you saw on the RTVE was the international pool feed. I was watching the BBC broadcast which would have been run from a different OB control room. We watched different edits.
Did the international feed screw up the sound for the Hey Jude number? On the UK feed it sounded like someone screwed up the que for running the vocal / instrumental backing track track so the presets were tossed and both the vocals and instrument sounded weak and brittle. The only real serious technical screw up I noticed during the whole show.
As for Americans not getting if or course they wont get it. In the same way there is a so much that Brits dont get in US media even though they grow up utterly immersed in US tv/films/music. Unlike Americans with British culture. The average Brit is far more exposed to US culture than even an Anglophile American is exposed to UK culture.
Given that when I watch a show as quintessentially American as the Simpson I’d say that with Brit friends / family (who are far more tuned in than most) I’d say at least 1/4 of the cultural references are lost on them unless they have spent an extended amount of time in the US. My all time favorite is one of the best gags ever, the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida church service segment. The first time I saw the episode was in the UK and none of the people around me got the joke. Because Iron Butterfly never had any hit records in the UK and no one had ever heard the track before. So while I was laughing my head off the others were watching me somewhat bemused. A minor incident no doubt, but indicative of a large truth.
So very much two nations divided by a common language.
“So very much two nations divided by a common language.”
Oscar Wilde, or was it Bernard Shaw, said the same thing.
Funny because it’s true.
Well, got news for you, I’m American. Like quite a few others here, I know Britain well — in my case, I’ve spent ten of the last fifteen years in the UK, plus school time before that. As someone here said yesterday, we often know more about Britain than the Brits do. Sad but true, since the level of dumbing-down and underachievement in the UK is now often worse than in the US.
My perceptions aren’t the same as yours, perhaps because you say you’re from the ‘Arthur Bryant school of history’. From that period, I’ve relied more on A.J.P. Taylor, A.L. Rowse and Alan Bullock, who strike me as rigorous and much better grounded. That means, today, preferring Nial Ferguson to Simon Schama. I am not a historian so I may well be wrong, but it works for me.
One effect is I dislike pundits as diverse as Bill Bryson, Matt Frei and anything or anyone to do with the BBC/Guardian axis. The idea of two nations divided by a common language (Churchill?) has transformed, I fear, into an unbridgeable social and cultural rift. My theory is it’s largely because the UK is now p-whipped and guilt-ridden about the massive mess they’ve made. The only exit is violent, but then the population agreed to be disarmed, which presents obvious problems, not to mention epic piles of cognitive dissonance. Brits also have to cope with 4.2 million security cameras (gov’t estimate, about 4 yrs. old) that photo everyone coast-to-coast an average of 200 times each, every day — all that in a now scruffy little country with a footprint smaller than Oregon. (Doubt that? — then start here: http://tinyurl.com/32xm8tn ). Again, they did it to themselves.
US decline tracks that of the UK, with a delay of maybe fifteen years. Will we heed all the warnings? Well, we’re a revolutionary society still, in ways that Europe has forgotten, and we’re heavily armed. We too fell asleep at the wheel, but I do believe that is finally changing. Our biggest problem is how to clear the dead wood — very bad idea to destroy the village to save it, and all that.
Enough, it’s very late here.
There is something fitting that the opening of these “games” coincided with Tish BAv, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, when the First and Second Temples were destroyed. Combined with the IOCs refusal for a moment of silence for the murdered Israelis, it could be added to the calamities of Tisha B’Av, which include the expulsion of Jews from England (England on July 25, 1290) and from Spain in 1492. Hitler would be comfortable at these Olympics. I would like to see the Olympic Games and the UN go the way of the League of Nations. They sicken me
Speaking of the Nazis, here is what I believe to be the German offical representative (sitting in swanky seats with the elite) as the German Team was announced and entering the stadium. The picture isnt misleading, being of a quick wave. Look at Camilla’s expression in the backround. He held the salute for quite some time.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/djplayuk/8047_405000742880455_34877914_n.jpg
I enjoy the Olympics and appreciate really great athletic achievement, but I had negative feelings about the opening ceremonies. They were hokey show-biz stuff, particularly the manic gyrating of the dancers. Who needs all that stuff? All I want is a simple, dignified opening ceremony to welcome the athletes… and let the games begin.
“Were (are) we watching the end of the world as we have known it?”
Yes, it’s very sad. But, truly, what we are watching is the world as we wish it could be.
Coming together in Peace and Celebration.
That’s the world of our fantasy — sadly, it has nothing to do with reality. Who knows, it might be possible in another thousand or two years from now. Or maybe not.
As much fun as it might be (lowering the curtain of disbelief — as we have done for so long) …
We are, rather, beginning to face the lie of it all, and the truth.
Have you seen the heartwrenching — and infuriating — article written by the son of Israeli athlete massacred at the ’72 Munich Olympics?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/27/why-ioc-will-never-memorialize-72-munich-massacre/
New information about ’72 Munich Massacre ….
Head of IOC in ’72 – Avery Brundage – Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite; Kept secret was that his protege, Juan Samaranch – who served 2nd longest IOC term as president — was a Nazi supporter.
IOC snubbed PLO by ignoring request for including their delegation. Further, with tensions at boiling point in M.E., having incited PLO, IOC DENIED Israeli government REQUEST FOR SECURITY for the ATHLETES.
Further –
1996 request by families for support for Moment of Silence — denied by ALEX GILADY – member of IOC Radio & TV Commission since 1984 — and SENIOR V.P. NBC SPORTS since 1996 — “friend” of massacred Israeli athletes and their families —
denied Silence request because …
“they would also have to DO THE SAME FOR PALESTINIANS WHO DIED at the OLYMPICS in 1972.”
… EQUATING — MURDER of ISRAELI ATHLETES — WITH TERRORISTS WHO KILLED THEM.
Regarding one of the murdered athletes — “They let him lay there for hours, dying slowly, and then finished him off by castrating him and shoving it in his mouth …!”
Yes, of course, the torturers would have to be remembered equally. That’s the “honor” (deranged thinking) of the IOC.
———
The Olympics as “Peaceful Gathering of Nations” in sports — is a farcical hypocrisy — as much as the U.N. is.
Sure — it’s great fun to see the young athletes and what they can do — and the creative “shows” by various nations –but it’s at the price of LIVING A LIE.
The “humans” who “run” it are despicable.
It should be replaced by others who have dignity and honor. A private organization — that would know how to run it with decency.
As an aside, the idea that the British do not like Jews is unfair. The link given relates to some persecution from the 13th Century. Things have changed a bit since then.
I would venture that Britain is the most Jewish friendly nation in Europe.
Being the most Jewish friendly country in Europe is like being the most Jewish friendly member of the KKK.
Britain used to be friendly to Jews, but under the malign influence of the BBC, Der Guardian, former London mayor LIvingswine and various universities, Britain ranks with Norway as the least friendliest to Jews. Germany and Poland are much more friendly, with even France above England in this index
I agree, but you forget the clencher, the new darlings of the PC Left, Muslim immigrants and Islam..
From those comments I can confidently assert that you have no idea what you are talking about.
To compare Britain’s attitudes towards Jews with the KKK shows a degree of mental and moral retardation. To suggest that Britain is the least Jewish friendly country in Europe after Norway shows a remarkable degree of wilful ignorance.
Assuming you are interested in reality rather than spouting idiotic cliches, the fact is that an increasing number of European Jews are moving to Britain precisely because it is the safest, most Jewish friendly nation in Europe.
Yes, the BBC and the Guardian are sinks of soft Left, anti Zionism, but Britain is most certainly not a land of habitual anti semitism, it simply is not part of the culture of the country.
A number of British posters admonish us not to notice the overtly political and propagandistic aspects to the opening ceremonies. To do so is to introduce politics which conservatives are never supposed to do. Instead we have to praise the theatricality and creativity of performance. After all the leftists are so creative.
This asymmetrical response will have the effect of completely ceding the culture to the left which I suspect was the actually goal of the British ‘concern’ posts.
Well a lot of Brits found parts of the 84 and 96 opening ceremonies kind of tacky and well, just a bit too American for our tastes, but, hey, different strokes for different folks. So as someone who is by British standards a very bolshie in your face rightist, way too Milton Friedman for most people tastes, I have not the slightest problem with what Boyle did. He, and what he said, is very much in the weft and weave of the nation.
If however, what he had presented had been some half witted ham fisted Channel 4 style student union politics agitprop I would have been the first to grab the pitchfork and be screaming for his head on a pike.
But it was nuanced, it was sophisticated and it was often sublimely beautiful. And if that is “leftist propaganda” then I say, more of it. Not a lot good on the telly nowadays.
jmc loves him some nuanced, sophisticated, sublimely beautiful Marxist Fabian revolutionary subliminal messages in UK Cultural Productions.
Too each his own.
From My Pet Jawa:
NBC Edits Out Tribute To Victims Of Islamic Terrorism
“If you are watching the Olympics in the States, there’s a part of the opening ceremony NBC chose to leave out. While the Olympic Committee opted not to have a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes murdered in 1972, they did have a tribute for the victims of the 7/7 Islamic terrorist attacks.
“The tribute included the Christian hymn, “Abide With Me” performed by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. NBC opted not to air it.
“From Deadspin via Pat Dollard:
“The major transitional element of today’s London Olympics opening ceremony was a downtempo [you can say that again!] performance of adoptive sporting anthem [WHAT?] “Abide With Me” by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. The song and accompanying dance were a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terror attacks in London that claimed 52 victims days after the 2012 Summer Olympic hosts were named. (It’s also been suggested the performance was a memorial to the war dead.)
“Regardless, it was a rather significant and emotional moment in the opening ceremony, coming just before the parade of nations—and it wasn’t aired in the United States. Instead, viewers were treated to a lengthy and meaningless Ryan Seacrest interview of Michael Phelps.”
Here’s the tribute NBC didn’t want you to see:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/213069.php
Here are the words of that beautiful hymn:
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
My comments: I must be clairvoyant! Somehow I knew the opening ceremonies would be both utterly banal and bad-taste showy. Until I read Roger’s clarification (and a lot of the comments), I thought that maybe my reservations were incorrect this time. It seems not.
I’m very pleased that “Abide with Me” was sung: it’s sublime. However, the “dancing” in the murky background reminded me of a scurrying insect in its death throes: what was that all about? And the rendition by Emeli Sandé was mediocre at best: her voice was weak, her phrasing poor (a breath after every few words), and, at times, she sang off key. As the cross was mentioned and Jesus implied, why not go all the way—and have this grand hymn sung in all its splendour, in harmony, by one of the English cathedral choirs, with organ?
NBC’s despicable action is just one more indication of the hatred of (Judeo) Christianity being exercised more and more blatantly by our secular elites. Chick Fil-A is another symptom of this brutal and diabolical—yes, that’s the correct word—persecution. What an inversion: the elites shill for the relatively small numbers of uber-intolerant gay and Muslim activists (who will end up at each others’ throats), while trashing their own, rich and freedom-giving Judeo-Christian heritage. What utter dolts and very dangerous bullies these people are.
Kyrie eleison.
“Abide With Me” is indeed a sporting anthem — many other things too — and in Britain is probably as well-known as Amazing Grace. I had no idea NBC edited it out (I’m in Europe), though I understand why.
Believe you’re too kind: Emeli Sandé (fat, black, apparently tone deaf) was a total catastrophe, along with the writhing man (black) dancing in front of her and the foggy images of other dancers (shapes?) wobbling uncertainly in the murk beyond. The idea, presumably, was the standard socialist tactic to ‘take ownership’ of a ‘threat’ by rewriting the past to claim it as your own.
Flatline! What a mess! And probably a future classic, soon to appear on YouTube.
Believe you’re too kind: Emeli Sandé (fat, black, apparently tone deaf) was a total catastrophe, along with the writhing man (black) dancing in front of her and the foggy images of other dancers (shapes?) wobbling uncertainly in the murk beyond. The idea, presumably, was the standard socialist tactic to ‘take ownership’ of a ‘threat’ by rewriting the past to claim it as your own. – some of my best friends
This. /\
P.S. Sorry for my ignorance, but what does /\ mean? (I’ve made a guess, but it’s just a shot in the dark.) A euphemism—I assume it’s not a particularly polite message!—would be appreciated.
It’s an arrow pointing to your comment above. The combination of “this” with the arrow, basically means. I concur. Ditto. I second that. Hear! Hear! You can say that again!
EV, /\ is a caret, which is what I thought it looked like. I guess I should have just gone with the simplest explanation. Thanks!
“A sporting anthem”: who’d know? And, yes, Emeli’s rendition was a “total catastrophe” and altogether atrocious. It’s as if, given the choice between a top-grade filet mignon, there for the taking—Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s choirs or any number of others in London alone—and a hot dog wiener—imported from Scotland—Doyle chose the wiener: good grief!
The constant and deliberate dumbing down of our great British, Judeo-Christian culture is a sure sign of our civilization in steep decline. Fie on such corrupt and subversive global atrocities as the UN and the IOC—and the useful idiots who carry out their malicious sabotage of freedom and justice.
Sorry to be cranky but I thought “Sir” Paul’s performance so pathetic I changed the channel.
Only 10th rate tired old “performers” in 10th rate venues ask the audience to perform.
“Now all the men sing” followed by “Now all the women”. Good grief!
(After flipping channels I checked back to hope the cringe-i-est part was over.)
Along with Aqua (#57), I will have nothing to do with the Olympics. Nothing. Which is too bad, because some of the events are worthwhile. But the whole thing is a massive bilk-the-tapayer scheme with cronyist profiteers run amuk. Obama must love it despite his failure (and our good fortune) to bring “The Games” to dear ol’ Chicago.
I think it is this… Brits have either decided they are ashamed of their history or the post-WWII generation in England is ignorant. (Or they have become a nation of bed-wetters after WWII and have become a nanny state)
English history, post Roman rule, pre-1900s, is largely defined by monarchies, feudalism, and colonial imperialism. Not much to point to there. I can’t blame them for not showing the English beating Spain’s behind to become the world’s dominant naval power.
But it almost as of England has no national identity anymore, if the best they can point to is the fictional James Bond, Mr. Bean, a few rock bands, and an aging Beatle. The country continues to point to the monarchy, a past relic of a ruling class, that was the absolute opposite of equality, freedom, and democratic representation, as the symbol of England. The Brits would’ve been better showing three hours of Dr. Who as a statement of their national identity.
well apparently you’re stuck on 1588 as the end be all of the naval wars between Spain and England. Yes the Armada invasion of 1588 was a disaster but with a year or two the Spanish fleet was rebuilt and the designs of those ships made better. And the Spanish struck back at the English on the high seas they kept control of the Atlantic. And if it was as you England became such a power then they would have had the ability to have struck back at Spain by pillaging their holding booth in the Iberian Peninsula but also in the Low countries of which they did try but were blunders as well. In fact the situation was that it was the English who accepted the truce with the Spaniards. Oh I goes the term Pax Hispania is made up in history class write. The real end to the Spanish was the Thirty Years War and you know who took Spain’s place France. And France would be the top dog of Europe until the fall of Napoleon by which time The British smashed the combined the combined Franco-Spanish Fleet supplanting their most direct naval rivals and because of the consequences of the Napoleonic wars France and Spain would never match up the British naval strength.
@some of my best friends
So 15 years in the UK? That would have meant that you arrived around 1997. The start of the Blair years. If you think that aberration was the real Britain then you will in for quite an education over the next decade as the country returns to its old self. My personal experience of the UK and how it has changed and evolved goes back through the Major, Thatcher Callaghan, Wilson 2, Heath years all the way back to the first Wilson administration. Now thats what I call a real depth of experience. London in the 1960′s – in many ways as far a world away as the Edwardian era.
That you did not get my Arthur Bryant allusion, as a short hand for attitude to Empire, just reinforces my point. I’m with AJP Taylor almost all the way when it comes to 20′th century history. Even when was wrong he was nearly always wrong in an interesting and intellectually intriguing way. Not sure about the Beaverbrook bio though.
It precisely because I remember what Britain was like back in the 60′s and 70′s that I was and am such a whole hearted supporter of breaking the power of overweening unions. And it because I remember the Miners Strike back in the 80′s that I have it seems a more nuanced view of how the real world works. Maggie was completely right to break the back of the Miners Union which was run by someone who was little more than a Soviet puppet. But that in no way should distract for the compassion one should feel for the miners as *individuals* and fellow countrymen during that terrible battle. I remember those miners standing outside the Tube stations making their collections, standing in quiet dignity, as their world collapsed. That is not being a bleeding heart liberal. That is basic humanity. I’m still glad Maggie crushed the unions and saved the country but the people on the losing side still need to be heard. They deserve that I should listen to their story. And its people like Boyle who give them a voice.
As for being beaten down and cowered. I think the response to last years riots was pretty illuminating. The riots, triggered by a typical Blair era nominee balls up, once over did not trigger a wave of hand wringing by the nation. How did we as a society go wrong with all the usual trite liberal excuses trotted out. No. Driven by a wave of public outrage the authorities tracked down the skiving bastards by the thousands and sent them to jail by the thousands. I think its over 2000 by this stage. And no slaps on the wrist either. An offense that would have got a summary discharge a few years ago was now a mandatory jail sentence. So the country is still very far from being some kind of Guardinista PC dictatorship.
In the last few years I’ve started hearing opinions and attitude expressed without fear or embarrassment in public that I last heard back in the late 60′s and early 70′s. The 68′er Reign of Error is coming to an end and when they have been shuffled off the stage the UK to return by a form of social isostic rebound to a more benign version of the 1950′s social compact. But without the Buskillite economic yo-yo.
For reference, my direct experience of living in the US goes back to the Reagan years. And as one of my best friends when I was growing up was Texan, my direct experience of Americans goes back to the Nixon era. Now that was a very different world. So yes, I think I do have a very good idea of what Americans would and would not get.
jmc? I have to hand it to you. I haven’t yet seen the man who can type and pat themselves on the back at the same time with the facility that you have so obviously developed. And while I am not calling you obtuse, I have yet to see you acknowledge that what bothers most of us is the fact that VIRTUALLY ALL corporate media (TV, movies, “pop” music etc.) is thinly disguised leftist propaganda. With all of your superior knowledge of American culture you might have noticed that. Some of us would like a break from this “Stalinism with a Heart” cultural aesthetic. We were hoping that watching a spectacle from and about a foreign culture would give us a break, but alas…
Oh, and I think if you’ll do some basic research you will find that it was us uncouth “Yanks” who invented rock and roll, and not your very clever and imitative countrymen from the UK. The Beatles, Stones and Animals ripped off the culture of the Deep American South, and not the other way around. Thanks for your insights though.
Well, closure time. You lose. You have a remarkable ability for seeing only what you want to see, rather like a down-market Nelson sticking the wrong end of the telescope to his blind eye. Tin ear, too. ‘For reference only’, as you would say, part of my family has British roots and my visits and young memories go back to before Wilson. Hell, as a tiny kid I even have a memory of a grouse moor viewed through the bedroom window (mullioned at that). I also have family members who were socially friendly with guys as different as Macmillan and Vic Feather; and I have vivid personal memories of the bombings at both New Street Station and the Old Bailey (unlucky, yes, but very instructive), both pre-Blair. I seriously doubt whether BNP/British Freedom Party have heard of either.
So far, I have been trying not to insult you, but it’s now better to be clear. I didn’t miss the Arthur Bryant reference. He was a lightweight blowhard with a tendency to fantasy and narrative. His prose style is watered-down Churchill. So is yours, in a kind of lumbering B-form way; and Bryant at least had an editor. Worse, there’s a whiff of Tony Hancock and Railway Cuttings, E. Cheam about you, and it clings. You sound like you have some kind of media background, west coast. I’m guessing you may have encountered the phrase ‘Burbank Brit’, though perhaps not to your face. It ain’t a compliment.
You’re still in the US, it seems. Hmm. You have every right to your opinions and to bray like a barrack-room lawyer. But IMO you are tedious, shallow and off-target; I have no interest in continuing a pis*ing [hello site censor, gimmeabreak!] contest with you. Good luck.
So what we seem to have here is some boring old fart tottering into his dotage currently somewhere in Spain doing his best harrumphing Colonel Blimp impression. Railway Cuttings? How droll. Know Cheam well? I do. I was born not too far away in Wimbledon. I know. South of the River. How embarrassing. Probably heading back home to the Richmond area soon. Yes, I’m in Cal at the moment. Cannot wait to leave. Its an insane asylum. The weather’s nice though..
Yes, I got all your references and they very much define you, your time and your place. A country long ago and far way. The fact that you still seem to miss my references (too subtle? the Bryant quip was a throwaway line for f**ks sake) indicates just how little you know about contemporary Britain. Or just Britain for that matter. Always a tourist, never a local.
Your rather flaccid attempts at put downs also very much reveal just how detached your are from modern Britain. Someone who really knew the UK would come up with far more substantial put downs, really put the boot in. Brits of a certain class are rather good at that sort of thing you know. Instead they revealed a rather light-weight commonplace mind who seems to like to air their views in an echo-chamber and not be challenged with any differing views. Sounds a bit like a political mirror image of those who comment on the Guardians opinion pages.
Me? I’m just some guy who has spent pretty much all his life utterly immersed in *both* UK and US society and culture, a proud citizen of both countries, with an immediate family spread over three other European countries. So I suppose I must be terribly parochial and brainwashed. That must be it. You seemed to have been out in the world somewhat but for someone who is getting on in years you really seem to live in a remarkably small world in what sounds like a terribly small mind.
And yes, I will be watching the closing ceremony on BBC One live from the UK. Not the international pool feed. Less than a fortnight to go by this stage. I cannot wait for another dose of that neo-Trotskyite indoctrination…The last dose is beginning to wear off.
In other words, you really are a complete tosser. Or as the Irish would more colourfully (and accurately) put it, a total gobshite.
Here’s Abide with Me, sung by the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw5TtwJFIKU
This is as it should be sung, not the anaemic version provided at the Olympic opening—just along the way from this great cathedral! In the last verse, the trebles (boy sopranos) sing a descant–a very high harmony over the melody: sublime!
(There’s a Schubert “Sanctus” after the hymn: it’s worth a listen too!)
Indeed.
It was more important to get some black faces on the stage though. Having too many white faces in a white European country is racist.
Exactly, EV. Kyrie eleison.
P.S. The words of this glorious hymn are at my post at #60.
Just to add Melanie Phillips’ opinion to the other comments take a look at Oscars all round for a patriotic feelgood fantasy
As she says in the beginning that the show was impenetrable for many foreign correspondents so basically while not Beijing it was rather “provincial”.
I receive Melanie Phillips’s emails. She’s a delight: right on the money, always. Brava, Melanie! (And, Cynic, thanks.)
Check out her most recent book, “The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power”. Fantastic!
Yeah, lookout, Melanie Philips is very clued in and keen observer.
Thanks for the link to her commentary.
Paul Westson did some research into Danny Boyle’s team…
——————————-
Labour Party MPs are already boasting that the opening ceremony was a socialist event and the “best advert for the party in years”. Conservative MPs are privately muttering about the very obvious left-wing bias — as well they might.
Danny Boyle worked with one scriptwriter and four selected assistant directors to stage the opening and closing ceremonies. The five are:
Frank Cottrell Boyce: Scriptwriter for the opening ceremony and a personal friend of Danny Boyle. Cottrell Boyce started his career writing for the far-left magazine Living Marxism which had initially been launched in 1988 as The Journal of the British Revolutionary Communist Party.
Stephen Daldry: Theatre and film director, producer, and three-time Academy Award nominated director; his films include Billy Elliott. Daldry was also a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) at Sheffield University in the 1980s, something he has said gave him a “political education”. The SWP describes itself as Anti-Capitalist and Revolutionary.
Catherine Ugwu: Creative Director and theatrical producer. Author of Lets Get It on: The Politics of Black Performance and Enigmas of Race, Difference and Desire. Her work is quoted on reading lists centred on Marxism and Black Liberation Theology.
The two remaining assistant directors are Hamish Hamilton, a TV and film expert and Mark Fisher who was responsible for the sets. Both appear politically impartial and were clearly chosen for their necessary skills only.
———-
http://britishfreedom.org/olympic-opening-ceremony-hijacked-by-far-left/
Support The British Freedom Party!
As I said, jmc likes his British Cultural Productions infused with Leftwing subversive messages and historical revisionism. Never can account for taste, I guess. Why not just purchase the Living Marxism and get the Socialist Workers Party (a vile nest of Anti-Semites and Anti Western traitors) newsletter…should be a treat.
I may be a bit late on this observation, but it did require a deeper dredging of recent events. Finally determined the only reasonable explanation is the Committee selected the wrong Boyle. SUSAN would have been a better crowd pleaser and would have elevated the ‘Classy’ perception.