streway on tv: Olympics 2004 Opening Ceremonies

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2004 VidCaps: Some of my favorite scenes from the Games

Opening Ceremonies

NBC gets 1st Gold Medal for Jurassic Park music combined with James Earl Jones for their opening montage.

Favorite commercial reprise - Budweiser's Clydesdale colt following the Clydesdale team and the leader winking at him as he runs out of room.

Never heard of TIAA Cref Financial, but nice use of the song "Some Day..."

BTW - The opening fanfare used by NBC (and ABC previously) for the Olympics is titled "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud...NBC actually combines it with John Williams' Olympic Fanfare from 1984's Games. Click on the link above left to learn more about the song...

Techno-cool, but old hat - the flaming Olympic Rings in the water

Speaking of water, the stadium floor covered with water reminded me of the Roman Colosseum being able to be flooded to have mock naval battles for the citizens' entertainment.

Gianna Angelopolous-Daskalaki,head of the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee, is beautiful but when she smiles, she looks like a Stepford Wife.

What are they advertising? - I thought it was a cell phone commercial, but it turned out to be a Mazda commercial.

Costas Quip #1 - "...the most famous story ...Oedipus Rex...kills his father and marries his mother. A sequence of events that seldom turns out well."

Katie sets up a Costas quip - "Alexander the Great competed in the ancient Olympic Games...He didn't do so well...Athletically he was called Alexander the So-so"

Factoid - 86 of the 202 competing countries have never won an Olympic medal.

Prettiest Female costumes - Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Honorable mention - the country name standard bearers.

Favorite monochromatic jackets - Brasil's bright green

Strange factoid - Baron Pierre de Coubertin's (the man who revived the modern Olympics) heart is entombed in a statue on the site of ancient Olympia.

Prettiest male costume - Kazakhstan's flag-bearer and the Mongolian flag-bearer.

Prettiest headwear - seen on an Iraqi female athlete

Traditional Costas quip - The Central African Republic is located in Central Africa

Favorite combination of costumes - Kenya's simple design of blue on the men and tan of the women.

Moving reprise from Sydney - the Koreas marching together.

Lookalikes - Retired Pole Vault record holder Sergei Bubka (UKR) and actor William Dafoe.

Bonita Vista Award - the brightly lit Parthenon at night... the glory that was Greece...

Factoid reprise/Costas quip reprise from 4 years ago - Of the 3000 or so languages spoken around the world, 1000 is spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Bad choice of words or I'm getting punchy watching this tape late at night - Carlos Arroyo, the flag bearer for Puerto Rico is a point guard for the Utah Jazz, a position formerly held by John Stockton. So Carlos has some big shoes to fill. John Stockton's feet were not that big!!(wink)

Favorite combination of commercials - Allstate's weightlifter droping the weights through three floors and landing on top of a car, followed by Ronald McDnald doing synchronized swimming, then followed by the G.E. spot where the O.R. tech is imagining "Fantastic Voyage" during a procedure

Dirty mind dept - I thought the lighting of the cauldron was actually a phallic symbol