Image

Olympics Opening Ceremony: what did you make of it?

User avatar
Olympic_Hammer_Sickle_Sochi.jpg

Matt Lauer's droning aside, what were your thoughts?

User avatar
The image is one of industry, of construction, of building upward to a bright new future of hope and change leading to the perfect society where all comrades are equal and flowering in the glory of the perfect Utopia! Do I have it about right?



User avatar
Image I thought it was a spectacular event. It was a great depiction of the history of Russia that highlighted many of their greatest moments. It did touch on communism but I believe the commercial breaks were strategically placed to avoid showing some of it. That actually surprised me given that it was NBC. It was a great opportunity for the Russian people to show what they're capable of. I'm glad that the only technical glitch was one of the Olympic rings not opening. Embarrassing? A little. But given the magnitude of the event it's not really noteworthy. The Russian people should be proud. I'm glad for them. Owning 2 Russian motorcycles made me appreciate the Russians and their culture. I learned to look past the cold war stereotype. I even drink Russian beer now.

I missed Costas' comment on communism since I had the volume lowered most of the time. That doesn't surprise me at all.

Image Did I miss the part about Next Tuesday?

User avatar
Comrade Red Square,

While Lauer's basking in the giddiness of the cosmic ascent of civilization under the former Marxist styled orgiastic displays that was passed off as decoration, the opening did seem to be empty of jingoist decadent western style displays. While many of the arguments of the past may seem irrelevant today, in view of our own glorious attempts at Hope and Change, it just seems to me that good Ole Joe Stalin certainly knew a great deal about uniting and bringing people together for the common good; something we should contemplate as we test our own resolve against conservatism and the evil hidden beneath a blanket of all that bourgeois ignorance. Just when are we going to learn!

User avatar
Deep Thoughts - Raisin' The Bar

deep-thoughts-sm.jpg

The Russians have really raised the bar of government worship with the 2014 Olympics...
I'm hopin' I can compete...

User avatar
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M7fchtEJpy8

What do I make of it? I'm with Johnny...

<off>.
Didn'tsee it, but I hear that the USSR was called a "pivotal experiment". I'd say the lesson was learned the hard way,
<on>

Hammers and Sicles on National TV in Amerikka? Glorious!

User avatar
Tovarichi wrote:Didn't see it, but I hear that the USSR was called a "pivotal experiment".

All good Party members understand that the mere deaths of a few tens of millions is but minor statistic when placed before the grand achievement that is the "PIVOTAL EXPERIMENT!"

User avatar
As Comrade Prezzy MompantsOnFire once stated, there are bound to be a few bumps in the road...

User avatar
.
.

I was verklempt witnessing all the pompousness and circumstances...
.
.

olympic-opening-ceremony.jpg

User avatar
Comrade Putout - this is some truly glorious visual propaganda output!

User avatar
Update: According to The Associated Press, when NBC viewers saw the Olympic Rings effect fail from the perspective of Russian TV viewers, however, everything went according to plan, because host broadcaster Rossiya 1 cut away from the failed presentation to successful rehersal footage of the ceremonies when they realized what was happening. Producers told reporters that it was an important move to preserve the imagery of the Olympic Games, and the AP points out that it wouldn't be the first time elements of the ceremonies have been prerecorded to avoid issues. Thanks to comrade Putout we also share in seeing the intended imagery just as the Russian audience did.

User avatar
In fact, that was a scene from the People's Cube pre-recorded gala, fundraiser, and show trial.

When things at the trial don't go as planned, such as witness testimonies or the jury verdict, we always switch to the pre-recorded rehearsals with the correct outcome.

The rest of it was recorded by accident and somehow wound up on COmrade Putout's computer. How? That's a question for the next show trial extravaganza.

User avatar
We'll need some advanced notice. Store 86 hasn't had pudding since the last show trial...

User avatar
They got the Blogger and Farmer statue all wrong. Blogger should be holding a keyboard, not a hammer.

User avatar
I have a dream that my colleague Comrade Putout will one day live in a nation where she will not be judged by the content of her hard drive, but by the content of her character.

User avatar
Comrade Putout, this is magnificent rendering of glorious opening ceremony as it truly was. I tug my forelock to you.

User avatar
Image
I think I understood some of the imagery as an American who lived through the latter part of the Cold War. I thought the train was representative of Lenin's return from exile and the aftermath of the revolution under his direction. It seemed when everything was bathed in red light, the dancers were all moving in unison in repetitious and unnaturally mechanical motion which seemed a metaphor for what humans are reduced to under the Soviet system. The segment following showed a traffic cop directing things in an orderly way until the symbolic intrusion of western culture in which there seemed more individual expression and less observance of the directions from the cop. Not being Russian, I may have gotten that completely wrong, but that's how I read it.

User avatar
I think New York Times letter writer ANNIKA SAVILL said it all wrt something completely unrelated to this blog "Since before the days of Ivan the Terrible, the Russian soul has needed to unburden itself of its misery as a cow needs to give milk."


I blame British Imperialist Dr. Who's TARDIS time machine for transporting Kasparov & killing poor Ivan after a seemingly innocent game of chess

Ivan_Terrible_Chess.jpg

User avatar
Red Square wrote:Comrade Putout - this is some truly glorious visual propaganda output!
Indeed it is, Comrade People's Director!

I have been out and about and unable to access the glorious Cube™ much the last couple of days, and now I see what I've been missing!


 
POST REPLY