Bonjour, y’all. I hope you were drier yesterday than the athletes, performers, dignitaries, and spectators at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. The Paris 2024 Summer Games officially got underway, even though archery, handball, rugby, and soccer had started earlier this week.
For the first time since Helsinki 1952, it rained during the Opening Ceremony. And for the first time ever, the event wasn’t held in a stadium or arena. Instead of marching, the athletes sailed down the River Seine.
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In all, 85 vessels carried the athletes past the spectators, beginning (as always) with Greece.
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Lots of countries shared large ships…
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…while others had a little boat all to themselves.
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Yes, the floating heads in the Seine creeped me out a bit. Then, of course, the USA called ahead and in their best Roy Scheider voice said, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
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The host nation was the only other one with more than 500 athletes, so they pacque-ed them into an almost-as-large boat.
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Ponchos and other raingear definitely were the order of the day, as the rain intensified.
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The performers, on the other hand, had to rough it. They even had a Paris fashion show, using a footbridge instead of the usual catwalk.
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During the day, and into the evening, there were some impressive displays.
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I liked these photos more than the beheaded Marie Antionette performance, which featured a metal band. That was the first thing I saw when I turned on the TV (I had just come in from mowing, and Middle Child wanted to see the Ceremony). I almost turned it off, but The Wife is into metal, and things (mostly) got better after that.
Meanwhile, the contestants in Olympic surfing held a little ceremony of their own in…Tahiti?
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That’s right…almost 10,000 miles from Paris, the French Polynesian island is hosting the surfing for Paris 2024. Too bad they couldn’t hold an event on Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. I potentially could have made it there.
After the floating parade of nations, there was the obligatory pop song for peace.
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While floating down the Seine, wouldn’t this have been the perfect year to break from current tradition and sing something more Yacht Rock-y, like England Dan and John Ford Coley’s “Love Is The Answer”? C’mon…it would have been perfect, and SO smooooth.
Anyway, the Olympic flag was delivered on “horseback,” as a mysterious metallic figure galloped down the Seine to the Trocadero, across the river from the Eiffel Tower..
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The stage at the Trocadero even looked like the Eiffel Tower. Nice touch!
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Then, after many, many French and international athletes carried the Olympic torch, it ended up in the hand of 100-year-old Charles Coste. Monsieur Coste won gold at the London 1948 Games in cycling, and is the oldest person to carry the torch. He then passed the flame onto those who would light the Olympic cauldron, Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec.
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Both athletes won three gold medals for France: Riner in judo and Pérec in track. Together, they lit up a most unusual cauldron, which looked like a hot-air balloon.
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After that, Celine Dion ended things from the Eiffel Tower with a rousing version of Édith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour” (“Hymn to Love”).
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This might be the most I’ve seen of an Opening Ceremony in 14 years, when another Canadian (Sarah McLachlan) wowed me at the Vancouver 2010 Games. On the whole, I enjoyed the Ceremony (thankfully I didn’t see the faux Last Supper… if merely emulating Native American religious imagery is off limits, so should mocking a religious event be). I hope you did too. In fact, I hope you enjoyed it as much as my friend and fellow UW-er Doug Keklak did!
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We take the #OlympicGames seriously in this household #Olympics #PARIS2024 pic.twitter.com/1elYkolRlY
— Road Kit Kek 🍀⚽️ (@dougkeklak) July 27, 2024
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Up next…synchronized diving? Let me know when the fencing, rowing, indoor volleyball, and pole vaulting begin.
Like Kek, we did a family dinner in front of the telly and watched the ceremonies.
Unlike Kek, we planned poorly. We grabbed Italian takeout. In hindsight, we should have gone with French food. Duh!
So what you’re saying is that you’d a been ‘Better Off’ serving up something like “Dinner Mon Dieu”?:
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BOD is one of the GREAT under-rated movies of all time.
Do you have Christmas in France?
That’s your 2 dollar, err…cents!
Your Movie May Vary.
Hahahaha! YES! Swing and a miss on our part. We didn’t even drink any Peru!
Imagine — possibly my favorite song, and certainly one of the most poignant ever written — has been part of the Olympic Opening Ceremony since Stevie Wonder performed it at Atlanta in 1996.
You wanna replace that with *yacht rock*? How dare you! ;)
Seriously, though. “Imagine” deserves a place at all Olympiads.
You could replace Celine Dion with Yacht Rock. I’d be OK with that.
Yessss! A Todd Rundgren reference on Uni Watch; my day is made! Best song for peace: “Imagine”. Worst song for peace: “Ebony and Ivory”.
The IOC agrees with you – it made the performance of Imagine part of the official protocol of the Opening Ceremony.
How about McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace” instead? I’d enjoy that.
In addition to.
Imagine is one of the greatest songs (at least words-wise) ever written.
Your Music May Vary ;)
I always side with John.
Maybe that will change…
When I’m 64.
Not bloody likely.
Thanks to…
When I’m 64.
“Your Music May Vary” – so true!
I know I shouldn’t, but whenever I hear a certain couple of songs with John Lennon on lead vocals…I think of Nike.
OTOH, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” is a terrific peace song – brought to you by Coca Cola.
“You could replace Celine Dion with Yacht Rock. I’d be OK with that.” -PH
Especially if it’s the Blue Jean Committee.
This was the hardest opening ceremony to get through in my 4 decades. Granted I haven’t watched them ALL, and I tend to find them all a bit puzzling in their own way, but when recent memory recalls Beijing’s choreography and Rio’s ambitious set design, this wasn’t even in the same league, let alone comparable. It felt like every theater kid in Paris got to inject an idea and nothing was vetoed, and to top it off it all felt slapped together on a razor thin budget (I’m sure it wasn’t). And sadly any natural ambience provided by the river and the city was lost to the weather or drowned out by Kelly Clarkson and Peyton being absolutely inane. Not even Celine rising from the clutches of a crippling disease atop the Eiffel Tower could save that spectacle, for me. Especially when my first thought was, “Celine isn’t French.”
Celine Dion sang in Atlanta. And also won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 representing, um, Switzerland. Apparently, she was contracted to sing “O Canada” at the Vancouver Opening Ceremony, but withdrew.
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This information only makes the situation more confusing. She did great. Her inclusion as the marquee act doesn’t make sense to me.
I believe the cauldron-cum-hot air balloon was a tribute to the Montgolfier brothers. link
Any Monty Python fan realized it right away:
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The metal band was Gojira and put some respect on their name.
Thank you.
Gojira is not “some metal band”. They deserve respect from anyone who remotely appreciates music. Every genre has some good and a lot of terrible, but no genre deserves a monolithic diss. I’m not even a “metal guy”. I’ve gotten into some crossover stuff in my day… S.O.D., D.R.I., etc. But Gojira? They are truly something special. If Celine gets her name dropped, they should too.
And… that song didn’t remotely showcase their unabashed uniqueness.
Represent.
Oops… “dis.”
You get it. ;)
Kelly Clarkson seemed to dig Gojira and gave them their due, even if she had no idea who the fuck they are. Thats not her fault, of course. The production team dropped the ball there.
I mean… Nobody on the crew could have figured out the names of all the artists and relayed them to the broadcasters? That’s bush league.
I’d be stunned if the Organizing Committee hadn’t prepared a briefing document explaining every detail of the ceremony for the broadcasters, on embargo. Maybe you hand them the info about the torch lighters at the last minute (Bob Costas didn’t know Muhammad Ali was lighting the torch in Atlanta until producer Dick Ebersole whispered it in his ear seconds before Ali appeared).
Then it’s just a question of “did you do your homework.” It seemed that Kelly Clarkson was able to identify some performers after the fact, but…
“I’d be stunned if the Organizing Committee hadn’t prepared a briefing document explaining every detail of the ceremony for the broadcasters”
9:00pm: Incredibly awkward Ménage à trois skit begins.
10:00pm: Blasphemous performance mocking The Last Supper.
11:00pm and throughout the evening: Frequent appearances by all-around not good human being Snoop Dogg.
I was half paying attention at times. Glad I missed the 10:00 showing.
If emulating Native American religious imagery is off limits, so should mocking the Last Supper be.
Even my parents, who in true parent fashion, don’t like my music tastes, thought it was a good performance. I mean, having a performance of a French Revolution song featuring a beheaded Marie Antoinette AT THE prison she was held in. And having a metal band and opera singer both performing. One of the better performances I’ve seen
I would have enjoyed it much more if Peyton and Kelly had done any reading or work beforehand, or, since they seemed to be watching and reacting live without any foreknowledge of what was coming, if their microphones had been muted. As for the event itself, it as fun, had a lot of great moments, but didn’t hold together as well as, say, London 2012. LA should have no trouble matching or exceeding this next time.
I was really proud of Gojira for being chosen to break down a longstanding barrier, but I was really hoping that Stereolab would make an appearance.
I was so mad that they weren’t chosen, I sat down with a big plate of Freedom fries. And then I Freedom kissed my wife. TMI?
My sons and I got into Gojira a few years ago they have a ton of great songs, great live shows…
I can’t post anymore?
Weird.
Well, it looks like posts are coming in sporadically. My apologies for the deluge. Out on a high note.
I loved it all. Truly impressive…
I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies. I thought that it was a great idea to send the delegations sailing down the Seine. The hot air balloon cauldron also received my favor. Considering what Celine Dion has been through and is still going through, I loved that she closed it out in a commanding performance. I had chills, goosebumps and was teary-eyed. I applaud everyone who put that together. Definitely watching as many events as I possibly can.
Lots of good ideas that simply didn’t work. Ceremony felt way too disjointed and flat. The lousy weather certainly didn’t help. Grade: C-
Paris OC Director Thomas Jolly: “We’re going to play with all those [French] cliches but we’re also going to challenge them.”
Common French stereotypes:
1. French people are fashionable…no need to worry about this one anymore, Hideous design from costume to lighting
B. French people drink a lot of wine… confirmed, at least by the judgement of organizers of the OC
III. Most French people smoke…true, according to statistics, but after seeing that OC, the question then becomes, what is being smoked?
D. French people are intellectual..refer to No. 1
Loved Gojira
It wasn’t the last supper, this has been explained in the media. It was the Feast of Dionysus and the performers in that scene were fabulous.
No one believes you or them. It was very obvious what was being mocked, and the vile performers were clear about it after the fact until the attempted damage control orders went out. Disgusting display.
The Last Supper had 17 people in it?
The overall theme of the critics that I hear of the OC regard the fact that it did not reflect Sports or make France look good at all…
Regardless of any religious connotations most of those skits we’re like watching a Pee-Wee Herman movie and pretending it’s art
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