Olympic closing ceremonies liveblogging

[ellarien]

(Well, as live as we get on the West coast of the US, anyway.)

Why are the drummers wearing cycling helmets?

The fireworks-with-people effect is impressive, though.

... and here come the men in green illuminated suits again.

And now the drummers are cycling off in those wheel things, which I suppose goes some way to justify the helmets.

Acrobats onna stick! Why am I reminded of The Prisoner?

I think Boris Johnson needed a bit more practice flag-wrangling. (And I can't help feeling a little sad it wasn't Ken Livingstone.)

And ... here comes a big red bus, pulling up to a dancing queue obviously hand-picked for diversity in everything except umbrellas.

Children playing on a zebra crossing (with crossing warden in attendance)

And then the bus turns inside out and turns into a stage with a famous singer I've never heard of. Onna stick.

Twirling illuminated umbrellas ... and some football player or other.

White, ghostly athletes dancing atop a tower while lights twinkle in the darkened stadium ... and the flame goes dark, but the Water Cube is lit up in color ... and the tower comes alive in red and gold and swaying bodies ... and now it's all blue again, and then flowering in red, and then the performers flow down, leaving enough to make a spiral ... and then it drapes itself in long strips of red ... and the strips soar upwards, revealing the Beijing games logo on the side of the tower. And
then the fireworks begin ...

Okay, I have no snark left. This is ... impressive.



Not to be outdone, in cloudy London the Red Arrows trail red, white and blue smoke over Trafalgar Square and a jet-lagged Michael Phelps.

Comments

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

I was very sad they didn't find a bit part for Ken. He deserved to at least walk up to the flags.

Also, while I was looking the mass choreography I found it immensely impressive. Thinking back on it, and reflecting on how totalitarian regimes are so damn good at mass choreography, I mostly fond them dead, dead creepy.

And that bus looked NOTHING like a London bus.

[ellarien]

I do worry about the cost of all that spectacle and those amazing facilities to the ordinary people of China, and how much of that was willing sacrifice and how much was coerced.

As for the bus, it was big and red and double-deckered, and most of the world won't know the difference. The bus stop looked authentic enough, anyway.