The London 2012 Summer Olympics that are in London with Sponsors and will feature Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals

[subbes]

Also us in 'murica need everything explained to us in one-syllable words by our own talking heads.

[gregbrown]

Oh the television people mentioned earlier. Did they have separate commentators? If there's not a language barrier, why not just broadcast the bbc feed? Or not talk over it at all more to the point.

NBC tape-delayed the broadcast so they could "add context to enrich the opening", and inexplicably brought in their morning show pair Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer to incessantly comment on the proceedings—probably because the Today show is NBC's only steady success over the last decade. Unfortunately, while you'd expect lots of commentary during the parade of athletes since there's nothing much going on, they kept up about the same level of commentary throughout the rest of the ceremony. But since there weren't really many reactions possible outside of the most obvious explanations of what was happening, they sounded like complete idiots. (A paralyzing fear of dead-air endemic to American broadcasting may have also been at play here.)

Of course, NBC doesn't care because they're making a ton of money from the broadcasts and also want to promote their other shows too, since the Olympics is one of their few toeholds into doing so (along with Sunday Night Football). It is pretty much The Worst Thing, and I regret even thinking the opening would be bearable while drunk. No more Olympics for me.

[circadianwolf]

Rodi! You've never read the words for Jerusalem! They're from Blake's preface to a book about Milton.

Oh man, I totally forgot about that poem's weird place in British culture. That blew my mind when I first learned of that.

I wish Brits (or anyone) read Blake's prophetic books beyond that poem. Milton in particular is... well, delightfully insane would be a good start.

(In the book, btw, Jerusalem is a woman in addition to an idea and a place. She has her own book, too.)

Oh, Olympics. Perfect storm of nationalism, corporatism, and security state. Whatevs.

[shammack]

Of course, NBC doesn't care because they're making a ton of money from the broadcasts and also want to promote their other shows too, since the Olympics is one of their few toeholds into doing so (along with Sunday Night Football). It is pretty much The Worst Thing, and I regret even thinking the opening would be bearable while drunk. No more Olympics for me.

I worked at an NBC affiliate during the last Olympics and the attitude there was basically "milk the Olympics for all they're worth because we've got fuck-all else that's making us any money." For months leading up to it, we were promoting it constantly and producing ads that not-so-subtly hinted at associations with the Olympics without actually using the words. I'm very glad that I got a new job just in time to avoid that fiasco this year, and I don't envy anyone in Britain who has to deal with it.

[Orv]

So I'm pretty sure I'm officially old, because the only thing from the Olympics I've watched is tennis, and I enjoyed it.

[Scrobbs]

Shropshire is a confusing place. Not many people know it well, it's 90% rural, no cities, and with a fairly small population. Yet out of this county came Mr Darby, the world's first Iron Bridge, and the world's first skyscraper. It has the only stone circle in the country similar to Stonehenge (often thought to be a 'prototype' for the main 'Henge) and countless other treasures.

Was also forced to change it's name from 'Salop' as integration with Europe beckoned.

Back to the Olympics, I was very afraid for the opening ceremony. Very worried indeed that we were going to become a global laughing stock. Luckily, it was actually pretty good.

Not too bothered about the rest of it though.

[gdf]

I'm in London. I'm excited that we're having the Olympics here. Also I think the Olympics are a Good Thing. Sorry!

I agree, I'm even one of those numpties that's going to descend on the transport infrastructure this weekend to see some random sport I don't really care about! Really surprised at the overall negativity in this thread actually, the corporate stuff always ends up seeming like bullshit and Locog appear to have been complete fascists but in the end it's only about that crap if you focus on it. I was relieved when the actual sport got underway so everyone could just start enjoying watching extremely talented and dedicated individuals from all over the world attempt to do difficult things faster/better than one another, which is great.

Can't bring myself to support the Great Britain* men's football team though. If it was Pearce's decision not to include any Scots (or indeed Northern Irishmen) then he's an arse, but I wouldn't be surprised if the SFA had made it clear to players that if they competed in the Olympics they'd be out of contention for international selection for the rest of their careers. Which is also stupid; FIFA wouldn't dare amalgamate the four UK assosciations.

*I don't know why they didn't ever get the IOC to change it to Team UK,

[Scrobbs]

Another reason that LOCOG can go fuck itself.

http://www.2012ticketalert.com/

[Scrobbs]

[James]

The exclamation mark kind of spoils it. It's supposed to be cool indifference.

[brkl]

Everytime I go read the news BBC tries to make me feel bad:

[Roderick]

I admit to enjoying the closing ceremony. It was at times bloody astounding (the goddamn bus!) and had some great performances (George Michael). The sheer number of costume changes and rushing about of decor was amazing. My mind still boggles thinking back to the outfits the Pet Shop Boys were wearing.

And then there would suddenly be awkward moments where thousands of athletes were prodded into the stadium like an ungainly mob of cattle, or the show would stop to present the Greek national anthem. Or some completely unknown (outside of the UK, at least) contemporary pop group would show up and afford me the chance to get a quick toilet break.

[Nachimir]

The closing ceremony had a bizarrely weak opening, random wanky symbolism, successive anticlimaxes, and I suspect, a tiny fraction of the budget given to the opening ceremony. All of the cynics coming out to play on Twitter made it enormous fun though.

[Salka]

It's not the sport I object to, although I hate sport, but I love that other people have a thing that they can come together and celebrate. Queens Jubilee, Royal Wedding, whatever - it makes little old ladies party on the street. I can get behind that. Olympics, great, it makes uh, I don't know... I guess it allows people who don't go to music festivals to experience a similar feeling of oneness and an exciting celebration. I don't know. That's great, even if I don't like it personally.

I still object to everything surrounding the Olympics. The attempted tax-breaks for the horrific corporate sponsors, the security paranoia... my friends went to a gig in Hyde Park to close the Olympics and they weren't allowed bring in any liquids INCLUDING SUNSCREEN that were over 100ml. No drinks or food to be brought inside - apparently one of them had their wasabi peas confiscated. No camping stools allowed etc etc... just sounded dreadful. And paid lots for the privilege no doubt. Oh, and apparently the sound was shit too. The whole thing is just cynical as fuck.

Also it does kind of sting when you're getting royally fucked over left right and centre by the current coalition but everyone just gets distracted by some fireworks and the Spice Girls. I know it shouldn't matter and I fully acknowledge it has nothing to do with the Olympics really, but it still stings.

Most importantly though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jij1CscGxkY

[Nachimir]

It's not the sport I object to, although I hate sport, but I love that other people have a thing that they can come together and celebrate. Queens Jubilee, Royal Wedding, whatever - it makes little old ladies party on the street. I can get behind that. Olympics, great, it makes uh, I don't know... I guess it allows people who don't go to music festivals to experience a similar feeling of oneness and an exciting celebration. I don't know. That's great, even if I don't like it personally.

I still object to everything surrounding the Olympics. The attempted tax-breaks for the horrific corporate sponsors, the security paranoia...

Pretty much this. I find the athletes amazing and pretty inspiring, and a lot of the sport extremely entertaining (I never really watch sports). I object to the colossal amount of corporate cock we had to suck just to get them to sponsor 10% of it, and likewise the suppliers, such as G4S, were massively exploitative and incompetent dickheads. The heavy handed treatment of small businesses on branding (and chips) was a bitterly stupid way to exclude and limit the cultural potential of the games, and the arguments given in favour of it utterly facile. The Olympics are an amazing piece of global culture, which have partly been stolen and turned into a rich dude circle-jerk.

One of the highlights for me was the Daily Mail retracting a massively racist article about it being unlikely in the UK to find the kind of happy, middle class mixed race family shown in the opening ceremony, then less than a week later, Jessica Ennis becoming one of our most prominent winners. Here she is with her family. There are other good things, such as the stadium being designed to deconstruct into a smaller more practical venue for Stratford, rather than be a huge, empty space sucking behemoth. Temporary architecture for events is a much better idea than trying to make something like the Millennium Dome profitable.