The Heart of London

I was going to blog about something else, but then I was distracted, and eventually I ended up watching the opening ceremony for this year's Olympics, and how could I not blog about that?

First off, I just want to say I'm pissed I was an extra hour behind because I live in the Mountain Time Zone. Central Time isn't delayed compared to Eastern. Why do Mountain and Pacific have to suffer?

Anyway, this was the first opening ceremony I ever watched, and I was very impressed. From what I hear, there was no matching the display of Beijing's ceremony from 2008, but I'd like to think London had something Beijing didn't. What I saw tonight was a strong and inspiring national pride. In the opening ceremonies, I felt like I was seeing into the heart of London and of the United Kingdom.

Probably the first thing I was really excited about was seeing Kenneth Branagh read the quote from The Tempest. I'm a big fan of Branagh so I thought it was neat to see him be such an important part of something as huge as the Olympics, but also the guy just looked delighted. The grin on his face seemed to reveal his own personal joy at having the games return to his home country.

I also really enjoyed the illustration of the Industrial Revolution. Aside from being a pleasure to watch, this demonstration really highlighted Britain's history and really spoke to me as London's way of saying, "This is who we are." This was followed by the beautiful "Second to the Right and Straight on 'Til Morning" which highlighted numerous themes and characters of British literature. I mean, literature. You know I had to love that.

Later, Paul McCartney performs "Hey, Jude" and there is a slight hiccup somewhere in the first lines. I thought maybe he was laughing at something, but I couldn't imagine what. Then later someone mentioned he had choked up. What? Paul McCartney? But then it wasn't really all that hard to believe, because I was almost in tears myself.

Overall, I thought London did a great job. So they're not Beijing. So what? Their ceremony had incredible heart, and the lighting of the flame was incredible to watch. I'll be watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for many years, and I think I'll always have to compare future performances to what I saw London do tonight.