The firework display of the glowing rings in the brief video above was thrilling and well-executed, but otherwise, this evening’s opening ceremony from the Olympics in London was positively cringe-inducing. I’m sure some of the less self-conscious performers were having a good time, but some must have wondered why they were there.
Unlike the awesome (and a bit terrifying) display of synchronized drumming and acrobatics from the Beijing games in 2008, that attempted to symbolize the entire Chinese industrial economy ,
there was no obvious talent or social organization in the London mob.
The overwhelming feeling was of a desperate mediocrity. And it was
boring.
Apparently, I am alone in these feelings. Sarah Lyall in The New York Times just wrote the following glowing lead:
LONDON — With its hilariously
quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and
the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly
off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as
something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation
secure in its own post-empire
How could I be so far off base? Those kids in their “crazy” costumes
moving quickly through awkward and under-rehearsed dance moves to a
potpourri of Brit hits were “celebratory” and “eccentric.” The giant
house-as-telly playing the greatest moments of British TV and movies in
center stage was “off-the-wall.” Tim Berners-Lee inventing the internet
(which enables these “wild” youth to IM each other and fall in love) is a
symbol of “a nation secure in its own post-empire [and post-industrial]
identity.”
Oh really? I know that I’ve written about the benefits of freedom for
design, but this wasn’t freedom or creative anarchy. This was just
awful!
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